Every Monday on Global Comment, we share the slow, thoughtful, considerate words that our brains – and souls – need but that it’s easy to miss in our busy world. We distil the best of the web and recommend just three links every week that you absolutely must see.
No fluff, no fuss, just three exceptional reads.
Here are this week’s recommendations:
An Elite School, a Boy’s Suicide and a Question of Blame (John Leland / New York Times)
Ellis asked his parents if it was the school’s decision or theirs. When they told him, “he just cried a lot,” his mother, Janine Lariviere, said. “He didn’t want comfort from me. He was very hurt. This is the most painful thing for me, because I didn’t know how to protect him.”
Three months later, in the family home in Red Hook, Brooklyn, Ellis ended his life. He was 13.
Inside the Secretive World of Penile Enlargement (Ava Kofman / ProPublica)
A sign in Elist’s waiting room instructed patients not to speak to one another about medical issues (the better to protect their privacy, Elist said through the spokesperson). But Elist could only do so much to disrupt the communities of unhappy men coalescing online. As Mick pored over hundreds of posts, he was horrified to discover that he had been acting out a well-worn script. The others had also read the GQ article about the Penuma, learned that the implant was “reversible” and, heartened by the FDA’s clearance, put down their deposit. They, too, felt that their consultations were rushed and that they hadn’t had enough time to review the cascade of consent forms they’d signed alerting them to potential complications.
We are history (Angela Barnes and John O’Farrell)
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Image: Enrico Perini