Suppose you learned you were developing Alzheimer’s disease. What would you do? Would you take a long-delayed vacation? Spend your time hoping for a cure?

What Mitch Evich did was start a blog.

The Diminishing Window is Evich’s place to explore the meaning of life. Since August 2015, he has written on a variety of topics, from whether green tea and red wine can help your memory to how he feels, and should feel, knowing he has a disease for which there is no cure.

Evich has a distinctive outlook. You could tell it was him and not me, for instance, writing about the raw emotional power of opera, the beauty of cemeteries, and the ways that Ivan Ilych and Gregor Samsa both comment on illness and the attitudes of the well toward the sick.

It’s not the choice of topics that moves me but his voice. He writes like a man who’s savoring things on his tongue, whether they’re bitter or sweet. He’s knowledgeable about history and literature, and yet he’s always personal. A blog entry that starts with novelist Richard Ford and goes on to echo Elisabeth Kubler-Ross arrives at last at this reflection:

My dad died in 2004, when I was forty-two, and I pretty much took it for granted that, barring some terrible accident, I too would live into old age. But it is always foolish to assume that one is exempt from bad luck.

I learned about Evich’s blog because he is a neighbor here in Somerville, Massachusetts. Through the magic of the internet, spanning space and time, I introduce you to him where you live.

By Dennis Fishman – Dennis is a Cause and Effective Associate who helps not for profits win loyal friends through their communications.