As I begin to write this, my dad Murray is in the Wheel Trans taxi heading home from his latest stint in rehab.

There is a specific kind of safety in a pseudonym. A quiet place to put the words where they can’t burn you. I spent a lifetime just wanting someone—anyone—to look my way and acknowledge the noise in my head, but I was always too afraid to attach my own face to the melody.Then the phone rang. I was floating, higher than a kite, all my walls completely down and my emotions running hot.

I believe this is the second Substack piece that could be categorized as, you know the world is fucked when…

Practical philosophy for everyday ethical decisions, without the academic jargon. Anthony Curtis develops moral frameworks through lived experience of grief, trauma, and the search for meaning not classroom theory. Click to read Radical Kindness: Empathy as Rebellion, by Anthony Curtis, a Substack publication. Launched 6 months ago.

I write to stay grounded in a world that doesn’t always make sense. Adoptee in reunion, mother, suicide survivor, clinical social worker, academic, and researcher exploring the landscapes of trauma, i...