On ancestors, inheritance, and what connects us.
If you asked me directly, I would say that I don’t believe in self-made men. I would affirm that we all stand on the shoulders of those who have come before and alongside us.
But in my day-to-day existence? Atomized and eager for optimization, I act as if I could pick and choose the model of person I want to be, fresh off the manufacturing line.
But even atoms are not atomized in the individualistic sense. They exist embedded within a universe of other atoms. Each the result of a series of dependencies stretching back to the dawn of time.
* * *
Until recently, I couldn’t have pointed to Dubuque on a map. Then, it became a place my friends said could make for a pretty and easy fall break road trip. I learned the city was on the Mississippi River and about a 4.5-hour drive from where I live in St. Paul.
I told my dad, and he mentioned that my great-grandmother, Anna, lived in Dubuque for a time. That was all he said. It wasn’t much, but it was enough.
I decided that it’d be interesting to visit wherever it was that she had lived.
* * *
Finding Anna Greenberg took United States Census records, conversations with local experts at the River Lights Bookstore, and early morning runs through neighborhoods that don’t exist.
I learned about Rabbi Joseph of Rutnistskes. I learned of Dubuque’s reputation as “The Key City.” I learned where 17th Street was and that it used to intersect Maple Street and Cedar Street.
I learned that these are just a few of my own dependencies. Dubuque became a city I could point to and gesture at a part of myself.
I wonder how much of the world is like that. Waiting for us to notice how connected we really are.
My Latest Writing
Treatment resistance is a terrible term. There. I said it.
It’s a phrase used in psychiatry to mean your condition isn’t responding to medication. But when providers use the it, all people hear is “hopeless” — not a great message to receive when you already feel bad.
What doctors mean by treatment resistance is less bleak than it first sounds. Essentially: Treatment resistance is medical shorthand that signals it’s time to pull out the big guns and try treatments beyond first-line medication. It might be the magic words that finally let your treatment plan take a step in the right direction. I’m glad I got a chance to set the record straight on treatment-resistance in bipolar disorder for bpHope.
Also new this month – I covered the latest research that brings a dose of hope for those living with bipolar disorder.
What Exactly Is Treatment-Resistant Bipolar Disorder? (bpHope)
Bipolar Research & Insights: Ketamine, Sleep, Smell, and More | October 2025 (bpHope)
Book Recommendations
Middlemarch, by George Elliot
Have you ever done a Goodreads Reading Challenge? You set a number of books you’ll read in a year, and your goal and progress are public. Pages are mostly irrelevant. So the cheat code for the challenge is to pick short, easy books — and lots of them — so your score can soar.
This is great for Goodreads, which is owned by Amazon. I’m sure it’s also excellent for many readers who dedicate more time to reading than they might otherwise. But for me? Not so much. I realized it was subtly nudging me away from difficult books – the ones that might take months to read. Like Middlemarch.
When I caught myself thinking, “Oh man, that’ll wreck my challenge progress,” I knew something was off. I didn’t want Amazon steering me away from the books that would help stretch my brain (that level of mind control is alarming!). So I deliberately started Middlemarch, which had been sitting on my shelf since I bought it at the beginning of the pandemic, thinking I’d have so much time for reading (spoiler: I didn’t).
I began Middlemarch in January 2024 and finished just before New Year’s Eve 2025. A whole year to read one book.
With every page, it felt like I was pressing back against our consumer culture. I could have easily plowed through at least five mass-market paperbacks in a similar span. Middlemarch’s 912 pages go slowly, at least they did for me, particularly in the beginning, while I warmed up to the Victorian-era language. But the payoff was huge.
By the end, I loved the characters, the relationships, the drama, the social commentary, and the time travel of seeing how early novels were put together. Something clicked.
So this is a recommendation for Middlemarch, but it’s also a bigger recommendation: Read something that feels big and demanding. Something that might require you to read pages more than once. Something that will absolutely wreck your Goodreads numbers.
Because while you struggle through it, you’ll actually be reading – not just checking boxes. You’ll be changed by the experience, not just finished with it.
To me, that’s a real reading challenge.
Browse more books on my Bookshop | Read more reviews on my Goodreads
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2 thoughts on “A Geography of Dependencies”