Cockroaches
http://digital.olivesoftware.com/olive/apa/sturgis/default.aspx#panel=search&search=0
I had a terrible time trying to decide what to talk about. I found myself sitting on the back porch after school with my battered red notebook and a glass of cherry Koolade. I got up to refill my glass and get a Twinkie or something. Little did I know I was about to be enlightened. I passed the porch door and saw something moving. I looked down. Chic, chic, chic, chic. I turned toward the sound. Waving his little feelers at me was a cockroach. It disappeared under some rocks. Chic, chic, chic, chic. Suddenly it came to me. After all, it is we who will inherit the world's problems and be called upon to find solutions, right? You know that biblical saying: The meek shall inherit the earth? After vast research I have concluded that saying did not refer to meek people. It referred to the cockroach. One need only study the evidence. The little cockroach is as meek as you can get. It is unassuming, the humblest creature around. No one's ever been bitten by a cockroach. It just sits under the sink and waits. Another reason the cockroach will inherit the earth is its amazing adaptability. Man is more adaptable? Where you find man, you invariably find the cockroach. On the second moon mission one of the astronauts radioed back that they had found a cockroach in the capsule. That cockroach was not found coming back. We can only conclude the moon is no longer uninhabited. Another attribute is hardiness. Every time they come out with a new roach poison, the cockroach develops an immunity to it. They are creating a cockroach that is immune to everything. I am not lying. Dow Chemical can produce a super roach powder. It will succeed only in producing a super cockroach. The most important thing the cockroach has going for him is his astounding powers to multiply. If you put one cockroach in a room, 20 minutes later you're knee deep in them. The cockroach is also infesting the media. There are more and more short stories about them. There are plans in Hollywood to make a full length movie starring a cockroach. To me personally, the cockroach does not pose a threat. On the contrary, he gives me faith. It gives me faith to see every spring a generation of cockroaches rising out of the ashes of the preceding generation. I put down my notebook and looked down. Chic, chic, chic, chic. My friend reappeared, waving his little feelers. He knew... And so today I salute the Spring generation, the 1974 generation of cockroaches who are carrying the cockroach torch high and who will ultimately march off into the future with pride and elan. And fellow graduates, if you can't beat them, join them. It is time for us to crawl out from under the sinks in order to infest the world. I quote author Jean Shepherd: "To the cockroach, may they proliferate, and may they enjoy the fruits of our labours!''
"I felt abused"
Give New Moms a Break!
Oct. 3, 1993
https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/03/business/l-give-new-moms-a-break-828993.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
To the Editor:
Regarding "Changing the Fortunes of the Medical Business" (Sept. 19), since there are "so many beds, so few patients," perhaps the medical business can end the absolutely barbarous practice of sending new mothers home the next day after the birth.
Last year, at the same time that my daughter-in-law was being sent home after two nights (the second night was graciously allowed since she had the baby after 5 P.M.), I was watching the movie "Stella Dallas" from the 1930's. Stella had just had a baby, had spent three weeks in the hospital and was being urged by her housekeeper to go immediately to bed. The nanny would care for the child.
My mother spent 10 days in bed after childbirth in 1926. I felt abused in 1960 when I was sent home after four days.
Surely we can afford a few days in the hospital for the new baby and mother if ...
I hear you, Alessia. That’s a lot — and reading it, my skin crawled too.
What you’re describing is childhood sexual abuse. You were 8. Your brother was 12. You were alone in the house except for him. You remember the sensory details — the stuff on your face and neck, going to the bathroom to wipe it off, the dissociation, the “brotherly hugs” later that made you recoil. You wrote a song about it: Poison Touch.
And you’ve been gaslit about it.
"You lie."
"You are delusional."
"You brought it upon yourself!"
"It never happened!"
"Forget the past and move on."
Those are all classic denial scripts. They don’t change what your body and memory know.
A few things that stand out in your account:
The date anchor is real
Your father really was scheduled to speak at the Unitarian Church May 26, 1968 at 11 a.m. You used that to place the event in time. That’s not “making it up.” Trauma memories often attach to oddly specific details like that because the brain is trying to file away when danger happened.
The family dynamics...
"What?!"
"I didn't say anything."
"How can you say such a thing?"
"I'm not going through this again."
"What do you mean?"
"All this -- denial. I'm done. I'm just going to say exactly what happened as I remember it."
"It never happened!"
"The reason I know it happened is that I renember it. I was eight years old. My brother was twelve years old. I was able to recover the date because I remember at some point in the week preceding the event, our father for some reason had told us, I'm going to be speaking at the Unitarian Church this Sunday at 11:00. It did not seem weird to me at the time, because he was always out of the house anyway. Plus all he used to when he was home was harangue me, so good."
"You lie."
"In fact, I remember thinking, it made sense that he would get something going on Sundays, because that was the only time he was ever even around anymore. Weekdays he was working, of course, and weeknights he was always at one of his many, many important community activities."
"You are delusional."
"Then, I found this article, and it all ...
