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Rona Maynard's avatar

I’ve recommended MOTHERLAND to many and savored this essay. How terribly sad that one paragraph about events of a century ago could cause a family to turn their backs on one of their own. This is the defensive brittleness of shame—of people feeling obscurely tainted by the actions of others who may be long dead. Elissa has carved out her own identity, at great cost. The others, not so much.

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Elizabeth Rothwell's avatar

I tried to remark to my pulmonologist about the association between grief and the lungs in Chinese medicine, and -- hoo-boy -- his boredom and irritation snatched a few more months off my lifespan. Thank you for this essay; I feel I have finally been heard! PERMISSION

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