Humanity: Raw & Unfiltered
I admit I didn’t really like you when we first met. We had only been in the house a month when you came over with your 12-year-old son, Kyle. You introduced yourself, welcoming us to the neighborhood. You gave us a quick, but very detailed, oral tour of the houses Read more
I learned I was a black market baby when I was 14. There was no legal adoption, and it’s still unclear if money had changed hands. The parents who took possession of me changed my identity and pretended to be my biological parents. The deception was deliberate and deep. It Read more
My mom desires a closeness with me now that she never did when I was young. I’d long suspected my mother didn’t embrace parenting in that fervent, born-for-this way that some of us do. Still, I was stunned the day she actually confirmed just how trapped she’d felt in the Read more
I’m your mother, but no I’m not listening. You’re talking in the backseat of the car. I hear you, barely. I’m your mother. You say my name “Mom? Mom!” I can’t really hear you, not really. But I will always be your mother. You’re talking more in the backseat of Read more
As with most pregnant teens during the “love generation,” I was told that the right thing to do was to relinquish my baby to a good home after he was born. Seventeen-year-old girls don’t make good mothers—or so they said. But I was a good girl. I did what I Read more
“Call her.” Bo steers their late model Buick into the dirt driveway with one hand and flicks her Camel out the window with the other hand. “Regina worshiped President Kennedy. She won’t refuse a call today. Someone dies, you want a phone call.” It’s Bo’s week to chauffeur herself and Read more
Daughter, I failed today. I’ve been a hypocrite. You may only be 3, but I work every day to teach you that your body is your own. Your body is more than the size it takes up or the shape it’s formed into. I want you to know your body Read more
You are an accumulation of every step, every word, and every thought you have ever had in your life. Think about that for a moment. Every feeling, every move, every relationship you have ever had throughout your entire life, has brought you to this exact point in time. As you Read more