Meet Erika Napoletano This week’s posts are a series of articles about three books that I’m giving away because they made such a difference for me, and I want you to know about them. Here’s how it works: First I tell you about the books, and then I tell you about the winners. All three of the books I’m giving away have made a huge difference for me in the past few years as I’ve been figuring out what I…
Wisdom is free. Giving it away? Priceless. Monday morning I got to do something I love more than anything. I got to give away knowledge. Wisdom. Thoughts and feelings and ideas that will make life better. Today and over the next few days I get to do something almost as good; I get to tell you about why I chose those books to give away, and by doing so tell you a little more about what I’m doing here. First I’ll…
“Hoist with his own petard, an’t shall go hard” So says the Prince in Hamlet Act 3, scene 4,” as he prepares to turn the tides of the King’s nefarious plot. A classy way of saying you’re about to have your own words thrown in your face, your own plotting used against you. What the heck does that have to do with launching a new website, you ask? Just this: I’m about to launch a website, and I’m excited in…
The older I get, the more medicines I am prescribed. These are mine. They make me feel old. Well, not just them. Them and a heart that seems determined sometimes to beat to its own drummer. Them and a left knee that has decided on my behalf that I should stop running for exercise. Them and a right knee that’s started to get stiff when I get out of bed in the morning. Them and hearing that screens out sounds that I used to hear.…
My eyes open. My first thought is, Maddie and Flaun will be worried, I’ve been gone so long. Then the thought, How could I possibly know it’s been a long time? I have no idea what time it is. I look up and see a nurse. He is typing fast and diligently looking at a computer. His eyes are locked on the screen. Please see me, I think, for I have not yet found words. I’m here. I’m alive. Can…
It’s really hard to get into the holiday spirit these days while innundated with the siren call of greed, commercial profiteering, and everywhere the trappings of privilege. Ferguson. New York. Florida. Brown, Garner, Martin. Racism. Unequal pay for equal work; hell, let’s be honest, lesser pay for greater work. Rape culture. Controlled access to medicine that should be between a woman and her doctor. Sexism. Torture, for the love of all that is holy. What are we to make of a…
“I’m not bi, but my wives are.” It’s a joke in our household, but today the joke – alongside an excellent post that Maddie put up on BadAssQuiltersSociety – got me to thinking. Where do I fit in the world of inclusion? I’m not sure it’s a question that I even get to ask, or that will be welcome. Maybe it will be seen as something akin to a rich, white guy asking in the face of an affirmative action…
Hey you! Yes, you! If you want to live and love and work bold, fulfilled, and BadAss, I’ve been busy building something for people just like you. If you’re stuck being one of the guys and want to be the man you always thought you could, or if you’re someone who loves one of those guys, or if you run a business that you want to take to the next level of awesome, come join us.
I am terrified of heights. More precisely, I am deathly afraid of falling from a high place. Getting up on the roof is pretty easy and I like the view. Getting on the ladder to come down, on the other hand, has been known to freeze me in place for many minutes of terror, indecision, and cold sweat. Oddly, the flip side of this terror is that I’ve never been able to stand at a high place without an impulse…
Every once in a while a moment of raw communication happens in such a way that it becomes clear there is a choice to be made – either we will rise to the occasion and speak the truth of where we stand, even at the risk that it might offend or have unforeseen consequences, or we will miss that moment and live with regret. Last week, teaching my Abnormal Psychology class, I had such a moment. It was a class…
