Month: June 2018

As I mentioned in my previous blog, Freedom to choose, most of us make decisions that impact our lives all the time. Sometimes our decisions turn out to be inspired, other times not so much so. Sometimes they turn out to life-changing, other times pretty mundane. As it happens, my decision as a high school senior in the suburbs of NYC to choose McGill over my other options for university (which I called ‘school’ or ‘college’ at the time, in the American vernacular) was both inspired and life-changing. I’ll be honest, I made that choice on a whim. I liked the idea that it wasn’t what people were expecting, that I’d be living was in a big city instead of in a sleepy campus town, and that Montreal had a real winter. Those were the winning criteria for my 17-year old self.

The unanticipated consequence was that, aside from…

I’ve been mulling over the challenges we face when we find ourselves having to rely on others for some (or all) aspects of our lives after having been independent for as long as we can remember. After having made our own decisions for as long as we can remember. This isn’t easy, not easy at all. It may happen because of mobility issues or other limitations due to infirmity, or simply because of advanced age. When my nephew posted this fabulous image on Facebook earlier today I realized that what I’ve been thinking about is really how to preserve our freedom to choose – to make our own decisions – in the face of limited independence.

I know, this sounds like a sobering subject, but not nearly as sobering as the world’s political landscape right now, and at the moment it feels like there’s far more chance of helping improve our…