In 1950, with a new Ph.D. in the­o­ret­i­cal physics, but no job, Mort Gor­don was going blind from retini­tis pig­men­tosa. Ber­nice Rubin­stein walks with a limp from spina bifi­da and isn’t expect­ed to earn a liv­ing. In All the Ways You Taught Us, A Mem­oir of Abil­i­ty, Dis­abil­i­ty and the Pur­suit of Mean­ing, Janet Gor­don explores her par­ents’ love sto­ry. Soon, with Ber­nice as his ded­i­cat­ed read­er, Mort over­comes bar­ri­ers to becom­ing a pro­fes­sor and design­ing par­ti­cle accel­er­a­tors. His cal­cu­la­tions help physi­cists ​“see” the atom­ic nucle­us and under­stand the largest forces in the uni­verse.

The book probes how Ber­nice and Mort suc­ceed as par­ents and give the author the com­mit­ment to pur­sue mean­ing in lit­er­a­ture, in Jew­ish cul­ture and rit­u­al, in sci­ence, in polit­i­cal action. As they age, when they can no longer man­age alone, Janet moves clos­er — with con­se­quences for the whole fam­i­ly. This mem­oir explores what we can do for each oth­er and what we gain from the doing.