Jack Thomas, writer

Also: Hasan Minhaj's willful lies [Donate ❤️]( [View in Browser](  September 24, 2023 Dear Cog reader, I’m continually amazed and humbled that people allow us to help them share their most intimate moments. This week, I worked with Geri Denterlein on [a piece about loving and caring for her husband at the end of his life]( and how that experience elicited a profound shift in how she experiences the world. Geri’s husband of 32 years was Jack Thomas, whose name may be familiar to you. Jack was a journalist for six decades. He spent the vast majority of his career at The Boston Globe where he served in many different editorial roles: reporter, editor, commentator, TV critic, ombudsman. After Jack was diagnosed with inoperable cancer in 2021, he wrote [a stunning essay for The Boston Globe Magazine]( considering the end of his life, and about how he planned to spend the time he had left. Cog, you might recall, [adapted that essay for the radio](. I know Frannie Carr Toth (my long-time co-editor) and I will never forget sitting in my home office that August afternoon, slack-jawed, as we recorded Jack’s read over Zoom. We knew there was something sacred about being trusted to preserve Jack’s voice forevermore. Geri reached out to me a couple of months ago, wondering if I would consider a follow-up essay – this time about [her own experience during Jack’s final 15 months](. As we sat in WBUR’s studios this past week, chatting and recording her essay, I couldn’t help but think of my own family; we lost my father-in-law a couple of weeks ago, after a long illness. I think that’s what made working on this piece even more meaningful. Geri Denterlein in the WBUR studios. (Jesse Costa/WBUR) The details of Jack and Geri’s story are particular to them, but the broad strokes of loss and meaning and love are universal to the human experience. I only met Jack once – over Zoom. But I’ve been imagining him in the garden, tending to his beloved roses. As time went on, he was too weak to do any of the planting on his own, but his ideas for what could be never stopped coming: “He, the one with the rich life of the mind,” as Geri writes. In his final month on earth, Jack oversaw the design of a new garden in front of their family home in Cambridge. Geri explained to me how he would sit at the front door, watching passersby as they came upon the garden and smiled, or took pictures, or nudged their walking companions in delight. (You can see photos of Jack's last garden in[ Geri's essay]( People will remember Jack Thomas many years from now for his smarts and his writing, but there is also this legacy of small beauty that he coaxed and nurtured into being. Thank you for reading, Cloe Axelson Senior Editor, Cognoscenti [Follow]( Support the news   Must Reads [We were together in the twilight of his life. And that was enough]( Geri Denterlein's husband Jack Thomas spent his final days much the same way he spent most days in their 34-year relationship: reading, writing, collecting recipes, gardening and planning ahead. "It was my life that changed," Geri writes. [Read more.]( [We were together in the twilight of his life. And that was enough]( Geri Denterlein's husband Jack Thomas spent his final days much the same way he spent most days in their 34-year relationship: reading, writing, collecting recipes, gardening and planning ahead. "It was my life that changed," Geri writes. [Read more.]( [You can’t be a truth-teller when you deal in willful lies]( A recent New Yorker article documents how stand-up comic Hasan Minhaj has fabricated many of the searing, personal stories that make up his act. What matters in the realm of storytelling isn’t the quality of the life being chronicled, but the quality of attention that is paid to that life, writes Steve Almond. [Read more.]( [You can’t be a truth-teller when you deal in willful lies]( A recent New Yorker article documents how stand-up comic Hasan Minhaj has fabricated many of the searing, personal stories that make up his act. What matters in the realm of storytelling isn’t the quality of the life being chronicled, but the quality of attention that is paid to that life, writes Steve Almond. [Read more.]( [What I didn’t have to think about at a historically Black college]( At Spelman, Blackness wasn't the first thing everybody saw, because it was something we all had in common, writes Nadia Harden. I didn't have to spend those formative four years of my life trying to assimilate and silence myself. [Read more.]( [What I didn’t have to think about at a historically Black college]( At Spelman, Blackness wasn't the first thing everybody saw, because it was something we all had in common, writes Nadia Harden. I didn't have to spend those formative four years of my life trying to assimilate and silence myself. [Read more.]( [The cell phone turned 50 this year. To celebrate, I’d like to be a little less connected]( Cell phones are always with us. But some days, I just want to lose myself in nature or allow my brain to run deep, writes Ethan Gilsdorf. [Read more.]( [The cell phone turned 50 this year. To celebrate, I’d like to be a little less connected]( Cell phones are always with us. But some days, I just want to lose myself in nature or allow my brain to run deep, writes Ethan Gilsdorf. [Read more.]( [How do you mourn a tree?]( Liza Ketchum observed a majestic sugar maple at Mount Auburn Cemetery for seven years, part of her volunteer work gathering data on nature and climate change. Then a microburst injured the tree. [Read more.]( [How do you mourn a tree?]( Liza Ketchum observed a majestic sugar maple at Mount Auburn Cemetery for seven years, part of her volunteer work gathering data on nature and climate change. Then a microburst injured the tree. [Read more.]( What We're Reading "After class, I remember thinking, 'Oh my god, I’m actually Mexican.' ... I realized that being a Latina woman was a part of that discovery — all thanks to this book that has been banned and contested in many states, especially in the Southwest." "[The House on Mango Street Helped Me Embrace My Chicana Identity]( Teen Vogue. "But for those who are immunocompromised, or for those who care about them, the pandemic is only as over as it is safe to reenter the world: not particularly." "[Know what makes ‘post-covid’ life complicated? Cancer.]( The Washington Post. "Taking a walk with someone you don’t know that well feels, to me at least, a bit like a forced march into intimacy, or an unwanted conscription of a treasured morsel of leisure into our obsession with productivity and self-improvement." "[No, I Don’t Want to Go for a Walk With You]( The New York Times. "The Blackness isn't the first thing everybody sees, because it’s something we all have in common." — Nadia Harden, "[What I didn't have to think about at a historically Black college]( From the Archive [How to hike through 25 miles of green space in Boston]( During the first pandemic winter, Miles Howard did a lot of walking around Boston. The experience inspired him to plot a 25-mile urban trail — the Walking City Trail — that connects many of the city's green spaces. [Read more.]( [How to hike through 25 miles of green space in Boston]( During the first pandemic winter, Miles Howard did a lot of walking around Boston. The experience inspired him to plot a 25-mile urban trail — the Walking City Trail — that connects many of the city's green spaces. [Read more.]( If you’d like to write for Cognoscenti, send your submission, pasted into your email and not as an attachment, to opinion@wbur.org. Please tell us in one line what the piece is about, and please tell us in one line who you are. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 🔎 Explore [WBUR's Field Guide]( stories, events and more. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📧 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. [Check out all of our newsletter offerings.]( Support the news     Want to change how you receive these emails? Stop getting this newsletter by [updating your preferences.](  I don't want to hear from WBUR anymore. Unsubscribe from all WBUR editorial newsletters [here.](  Interested in learning more about corporate sponsorship? [Click here.]( Copyright © 2023 WBUR-FM, All rights reserved.