Pill-age

Jack-faced and jocular you meant to rob your parents because you needed a shot in the arm.

You’d already ransacked your grandmother’s apartment for her pain meds — her doctor wondering how one person could tolerate so many pills: “you’re taking them too fast, these should last you for three months — it’s been a month and a half! Do you have a grandson?”

He knew, but she dismissed it and you took advantage and pilfered her “pill-age,” and now you’re out.

You’re stealing from your mother and you’re enroute with her $40 in your pocket, and her heirloom engagement ring wrapped inside the wad of two $10 bills and four $5’s — and the pawn shop beckons you — strangely numinous like a shot of gold at the end of the block.

“There’s something wonderful about the spontaneity of social media, but I think at this point it’s becoming 100% toxic for people to be firing off the top of their brains… the deeper parts of our brain are actually more empathic. If you revise something 20 times, for a mysterious reason, it becomes more social, empathic and compassionate.”

— George Saunders / The Guardian, 2 January 2021