All of us it seems, have two voices in our head. Sometimes all we hear is the critical nudge who insists we’re never enough, that we find a new job or new relationship or lose weight or parent better or volunteer more, that we make more homemade or wipe away more piles of dust. It […]
Trash TV: When kids catch you in the act
The other night my daughter looked over me lying on the couch. “What are you watching?” she asked. I guess I fell asleep in front of some movie called “House Bunny.” I need to be more careful when I watch trash. My daughter is of the age (nearly 17) when she sees herself as my morality […]
Whores-de-vores
Have you ever butchered a word? I mean just bloodied the poor thing? I took French for 7 years and I still can’t pronounce sommelier, the wine expert at restaurants. I’ve asked. I’ve sounded it out. I can’t do it. I give up. There’s been plenty of non-foreign words I’ve mangled but I can’t remember. […]
Impolite Conversations: Talking about hard issues without cringing or screaming.
Can’t WAIT to read this book! “Here’s a thought: it is truly difficult to have a conversation without really listening to the person we are talking to. Not only do we no longer listen but, we thanks to a new technological innovations, we don’t have to. Instead we enjoy making our points so much […]
Jesus and Jello. Why I liked my religious buffet growing up.
Image credit: Wikipedia Excerpted from my essay “Jesus and Jello” I was raised with a la carte religion, a buffet line of a little bit here, a little bit there, mostly Methodist with a dash of Presbyterian. From time to time my mother brought my sister and I to our local church’s Sunday school […]
Ice bucket challenge ‘narcissism masked as altruism?’ Oh for Pete (Frates’) sake.
“It’s like a game of Would-You-Rather involving the entire internet where, appallingly, most Americans would rather dump ice water on their head than donate to charity,” writes Arielle Pardes at Vice. “There are a lot of things wrong with the Ice Bucket Challenge, but the most annoying is that it’s basically narcissism masked as altruism.” I […]
Robin Williams: Our brilliant masked man.
I couldn’t figure out why I woke up this morning still thinking about Robin Williams. My husband offhandedly asked me yesterday why he thinks he did it, and maybe he asked me because no one can grasp why this beautiful brilliant man who made us snort laugh took himself from his family and fans. Or […]
Entitled? Of course veterans, and our hard-working willing.
Few issues on the American landscape are more sacred, more immune to partisan feuding than supporting our returning soldiers. Most people, pro-war or against, wouldn’t dare deny soldiers accessible, affordable quality healthcare, nor should we willing to let even one soldier suffer or die waiting months to see a doctor. Who isn’t stopped in her […]
Pregnancy ‘warm and fuzzy,’ birth control ‘immoral?’ Mr. Potter, snap out of it.
Click here to sign petition against Eden Foods I’m curious if Eden Food’s CEO Mr. Michael Potter ever had the “immoral and unnatural practices” he says birth control promotes, before he got married? “Michael Potter, Eden’s CEO, claims, among other things, that contraception ‘almost always involve[s] immoral and unnatural practices.’ That’s one of the reasons why he filed […]
God, Guns but no gays? My Letter to this Kentucky business owner
Image: Wikimedia Commons I just sent the following email to this Kentucky business owner. I’m HORRIFIED his family received death and rape threats for his store policy, but I’m also horrified at his policy. Dear Herald Owner, I am terribly sorry your wife and children received death and rape threats in response to your policy to “refuse to […]