Sticks and stones and broken bones: an anniversary

When I was 11 years old, I broke my back running into a burning building to save a puppy.

Sorry.

That’s a lie.

But it sounds so much better than the truth.

When I was 11 years old, I broke my back falling out of a chair.

I was siting in one ofthose office chairs with wheelson them. I pushed back to get up, the wheels caught on the carpet, l fell backwards, hit a wall, crushed three vertebrae between my shoulder blades and got severe whiplash in my lower back.

It’s not a good story. In any way.

I spe...