You should thank me. Really. You should thank me because today I applied the first rule of blogging: don’t publish crap. If you’ve read my blog, Awakened Moments, for the past couple of days, you know I’m participating in a Problogger challenge. In it, every day for a week I am given a style of post in which to write, and my job is to generate content in that style. So far, first there was a list post, then a…
It’s time to reintroduce this term: radical civility. By all things holy and otherwise, we need it. Desperately. Immediately. Please. I can’t read one more days’ worth of social media frothing full of half-truths, mostly lies, and the simple unwillingness to listen to one another, lest I go looking for the nearest bridge from which to leap. Not one more day of posting drivel that passes for well-researched argument, for repeating the deluge of argument from the internet without bothering…
The internet is full of funny memes and articles like the one on the right here. My favorite is still my beloved Maddie’s “just because I say ‘save the forests’ doesn’t mean I think ‘fuck the oceans.’” I shared the one pictured here on my social media feed, because I thought it was funny. But then I thought, what’s funny about apologizing for Black Lives Matter? Why do we have to explain racism? Here’s my question: why are we seeing so many…
I have this to say about aging gracefully: Bullshit. People have been telling me for years that “old” is a state of mind. The implication being that if you don’t think old, then somehow, you won’t be old. That too is Bullshit. There is a hidden admonishment in this magical thinking, that if you do feel old, you must be doing it wrong. I notice that only people much younger than me ever talk like that. Today, I realize that…
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…
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…
If you ask a man to be more open about what he feels, beware the possibility that you might not like what he has to say. I am posting here about an article that appeared this morning on The Good Men Project titled Sex, Marriage, and the Silent Treatment. Whether you are a man or a woman, I encourage you to read it. I also encourage you to read the comments that follow it, along with the voluminous comments that have…
