When Everything Breaks

On the inescapable sense of being in a free fall this week

The week started with an improbable chain of events — a student driver cut me off, and I hit the brakes — which led to a dozen eggs flying across my car, which led to a clean-up where I inadvertently let the raw egg whites from the car mats drip all over the floors of the house. The drips dried into tiny fresco-like reminders of how quickly things can unravel. Renaissance painters knew the power of egg whites as a binding agent; I discovered their tenacity while on my hands and knees with a scraper on the kitchen floor.

Then came the devastating news that a friend has cancer and that my sister needs surgery. The chaos of the political situation was driven home when one of my children asked me, "Why aren’t we doing anything?" and again when my 1st grader reported that a classmate had asked, "Did you know there is a war going on in America - what side are you on?" My jaw dropped - after a moment, I replied that in a community, there are no sides; that in our family, we help anyone in nee…