I was twenty-something, fresh off my first posting in San Francisco. New career, new benefit I didn't understand yet: health insurance. One Saturday at the mall, pretzel in hand, I saw a sign at Sears Optical. Free vision test. We accept all insurance. Free glasses, on a benefit I already had. Girls like a guy in glasses. No downside, I thought. Puff of air in both eyes. The doctor said my pressure was 19. Too high for someone my age. I need you on drops, he said. Stay on top

A childhood memory of a jungle gym, a fall, and a friend who let go of my hand. Decades later, a road trip back to that schoolyard changed how I saw it — and how much of my life I'd built on guarding against a threat that was already gone.

That is the sentence I keep coming back to. Not as a policy position. Not as a business pitch. As something I lived — across restaurant tables in Southern California, with one of the best friends I have ever made. His name is Neider Parra Contreras. The Ceremony A few years ago, I was working in Bogotá, Colombia, when I attended a ceremony honoring members of the Colombian National Police. That is where I first met Neider. He was young and carried himself with a quiet dignity

I was the tenth pick, every time — until my dad cut a broomstick, fashioned a hose into a batting tee, and gave me a place to practice a game no one would teach me. Years later, I got my first real at-bat. First pitch. I didn't miss.

I wasn't looking for anything when the email arrived. Greg Moomjy sent it from Delaware, where he was keynoting an opera conference on accessibility. He was in the middle of his own work, important work, and he still stopped to think about me. One forward. No explanation needed. That's the kind of people you want around you. Greg and co-founder Marianna Mott Newirth are the driving force behind Opera Praktikos, New York City's first disability-affirmative opera company where.

Every morning in New Jersey started the same way. I rolled out of bed onto the floor, army crawled to the shower, and turned the water as hot as I could stand just to loosen the muscles around my hip enough to make it to the NJ Transit train into the city. I was munching ibuprofen like Pez candies. Not occasionally. Daily. For years. I have cerebral palsy (CP). I was diagnosed around age two. CP affects the part of the brain that controls muscle movement. It is the most commo