Columns

I can’t stand dogs. They bark a lot. They smell. They require a lot of attention. They tend to whine when I’m on the phone. So, yeah, I can’t stand them. Relax, people! I’m just kidding! I wanted to get your attention for a couple of minutes so you could…

I wasn’t expecting to be brought to tears when I heard motivational speaker Lisa Nichols address a crowd at the Archangel Summit in Toronto last year. Nichols strode onto the catwalk-style stage wearing a long, embroidered dress, her braided hair cascading down her back. A…

This week marks a year since I started writing my column, “A Family Tradition.” Having a forum like this has provided an amazing opportunity to share about the journey my wife, Jill, and I have embarked on since her Huntington’s disease diagnosis in 2018. Honestly, I wish neither she…

For many people I know, including me, COVID-19 started out as a joke. It shares the same name as a beer, for example.  But then, the Chinese city of Wuhan was quarantined. That was when I…

Listen, do you hear that sound? It’s the sound of people panicking. The cause of their panic? The coronavirus. It’s difficult to avoid the topic as it’s constantly on the TV news, on the front pages of every newspaper, and all over the internet. It’s the subject of jokes…

Emily Zivin is a licensed clinical social worker at Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s Movement Disorders Center in Chicago, one of the Huntington’s Disease Society of America’s Centers of Excellence. My wife, Jill, and I know her from Jill’s visits there. We find her to be effervescent, highly knowledgeable,…

One summer when I was in middle school, my parents and I went to Florida to visit family. On a gorgeous day (well, as much as wet heat can be gorgeous during the summer), my mom, dad, and I went to Marina Jack…

Recently, our daughter, Alexus, came home for a weekend visit. It was wonderful, and the weather was perfect. We ate delicious food and had one big ball of fun. We are lucky to live in an area with many things to do. The weather has been so gray lately, but…

Because Feb. 29 is Rare Disease Day, I thought it would be a good idea to talk to my wife about what makes her so rare. Jill was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease in 2018. In the U.S., the number of people who have the disease is about…

I walked through the door of my condo at 9 p.m., kicked off my running shoes, and dropped my gym bag on the floor. Crap, he’s not back yet, I thought to myself. I had just returned from my fifth run of the week. I was beating down my body…