Author: Jim Mitchem

15MAR22 UPDATE: A development has arisen which has prompted me to return to this post for required edits. It has been brought to my attention that the sale of healthy human parts is big business not only in the US, but around the world. The controversial practice is shrouded in secrecy and financed by the ultra wealthy who pay millions for healthy kidneys, hearts, lungs, and an assortment of other vital internal organs. Which brings it back to me. My…

I recently watched Tick, Tick… Boom! the Netflix movie about the life of Jonathan Larson, the writer of Rent. It moved me to tears.

On December 10, 2021 I was diagnosed with cancer. It turned out to be a moment of clarity and grace.

We were in a white room. That much I knew. There were images on the walls but I couldn’t quite make out their colors or shapes. Lately, things were mostly just smudges of light and dark. But it didn’t matter. I could see her, and that’s all I needed to know that everything was okay … that everything was going to be okay.  There was muffled discussion from a strange voice in the room, but I couldn’t quite make out…

A man who was once homeless and suicidal discusses how he overcame alcoholism to live a soberly for 30 years.

Next to sobriety, fatherhood has been the most important experience of my life. When the heart expands, it never goes back.