Persons With an Empty Nest

Dear Friends, The Hard Taco song for September is called “Can’t Relate.”

Speaking of things that are not relatable, our home in Ann Arbor is now child-free. The chicks have flown. The joeys have left the pouch. The baby barnacles have latched on to a new hull. The tapeworms have moved on to that part of their life cycle that depends on people eating raw meat or feces or both.

Friends keep asking if we’re ready to be empty nesters. Frankly, I resent that label. A person with diabetes can be so much more than a diabetic, and a person who languishes in a domestic carapace whose deserted halls echo with the phantom peels of childhood laughter is not merely an empty nester. Read more