THE LOST COLUMN
Slice Of Life Stories On Family, Sports, Losing & Life
I’ve been a writer since ‘94 but have experienced losing for much longer.
It’s a chronic condition: At 13, Donny Wilmot beat me 7-6 in tennis and told me, “You played a career match Cote, and you still lost.” In high school, I started at shooting guard as a Sophomore, a year in which our hoops team put up 20 in the loss column, out of 20 games. At 26, I got so lost driving home from New York City on my third date with Bridget we ended up on Pennsylvania’s I-80. That’s really hard to do. I lost my hair by 29, my ability to make a 3-foot putt by 30 and the grass in my front yard by June, every year. At 33, I left my wallet on the top of the Subaru while filling up the tank twice in an eight-day span; both times the wallet fell off as I spun away. Today, I deal with a different kind of losing – as a coach of a middle school girls basketball team of kids who’ve never really played before and don’t have a safe place at home to practice; as a father of three who give their best in sports and on stage, but don’t always win, and as a man on the cusp of 50 who on any given day loses his patience, keys, favorite shirt and hearing….through it all, I try to learn a little something from losing….and be better for it the next time.
This is my book on losing—how to do it gracefully and with any luck stop it.
The Flawed ATM Coupon
I once picked up a coupon voucher inside a gas station ATM, and used it to schedule the limo for my wedding back in 2000. Big mistake. Huge. But not all ATM vouchers are created equal.
The Sunday Pick Up
A story about a bunch of aging guys doing back door cuts and give and go’s every Sunday morning for the last ~20 years…before coffee, church and chores….
Fix That Door Hinge
Fixing household stuff is not so easy - feels similar to the broader challenges our healthcare system faces fixing things.
Aunt Adeline Died?
Some addictions get all the press. What’s yours? Is it good, bad, both? My take the addictions I see and hear every day.
March Madness, Healthcare Style…
Imagine if physicians competed like basketball teams do in March? Well, they do complete for patients and for coverage of their services. Check out the story here.
The Lifeline
Two boys who came of age together now live in a more complicated world, in college, where they are grappling with the new realities of being students in America in the 21st century. Who is their lifeline?
The Unnecessary Test
Just like our kids who wonder why they need to take so many tests, patients and policymakers sometimes ask a similar question - why so many lab tests?
The Cheetah
Very few people know much less understand what palliative care is…so maybe this can help.
What’s The Price Of Survival?
Questions about how to deal with end of life care are some of the hardest we face. The answers to how we think about survival and cost may tell us an awful lot.
Teach Your Children Well
I grew up listening to Crosby Stills & Nash and that song Teach Your Children well never really made sense to me like it does today…
Chasing The Diagnosis
A story from a 68 year old RN who struggled to get appointments after a positive colon cancer screening test….what it tells us and what it means
Mary Did You Know?
A Christmas story about a nurse who didn’t really seem to like people….or maybe she did…
Interior Design
Insight from two recent interior design graduates on how they see their role….
Throw Momma From The Walker
The old folks are falling faster than the Red Sox in the standings after a July slump….a story ‘bout what it means…