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Opinions

MembersWe Need to Talk

How to have a conversation that matters

Photo: Nati Shohat/Flash90

A few weeks ago I finally caught Corona after thinking I’d never get it. And every time I told someone they’d come back with, “Yea, I had it too and it took me a long time before I got better.” Or “my aunt Sylvia had it and she still feels weak after 3 months.” And on and on they go telling me about their pain until I got so tired of listening to their sob stories I stopped talking about mine. Now I hate telling people when I’m sick.

Then a journalist I work with called to tell me her dad had passed away. I could hear real pain in her voice but didn’t know what to say. It’s easy to say the wrong thing when someone is grieving and vulnerable, so I started talking about how I totally understood her grief because I also lost my father after many years of sickness, and how we were so close like best friends and how hard it was for me to get through that. I wanted to let her...

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Patrick Callahan

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