An Origin Story

Born of an Italian mathematician and a German nurse into the green cradle of the suburbs, fifth of six kids, Patty Hearst on TIME and the fall of Saigon, windows onto a troubling landscape, early lessons in magic at the Rec Center and bike rides into and out of woods that promised solitude and necking couples — I really wanted to steal the origin story of my younger brother who at age two was holding himself up onto the stereo cabinet in the living room watching a record go around — it was Sinatra or Wes Montgomery or Paul Revere and the Raiders — when he turned and for the first time in his life walked upright, beaming, the song behind him.