This time of year is always strange for me. Right after Labor Day of 2000, I moved back to my parents’ place in Naperville from San Francisco, where I had been living since late 1993, to be with my father during his final days (he died that October). I had no plans other than being present for his end, which meant that thinking about the future was near impossible. And I’m not great at being a live-in-the-moment kind of person. At the same time, I found that looking back in the immediate aftermath of loss was also quite painful.

I had thought at the time that losing my dad would be the worst thing I’d have to face for a while. But no. There was the “election” of George W. Bush, followed by the 9/11 attacks, the horrors of the Iraq War, the botched Katrina response, the financial collapse

See Full Page