At a remove of 3+ years, I begin to see that part of my problem at The Church That Shall Not Be Named was that, in addition to working too hard, I was working at the wrong stuff. I was doing what they needed (financial secretary, Sunday School, &c.) and not whatever it is that [...]
Why haven’t I been able to celebrate Obama’s historic victory, either here or personally?
Partly, I guess, it’s the exhaustion that follows a great release of tension. I couldn’t believe that America would elect George Bush in 2000, and I was shocked that he was re-elected in 2004. I’ve been angry and frightened for [...]
Wil’s Fundamental Truth of Writing: Don’t be afraid to suck. It is easier to fix a broken scene than it is to fill up a blank page.
L.L. Barkat writes about her journey to the awareness of God through a dark night: a transfiguration I can only observe from this distance, albeit with enormous admiration:
So I am a baby in the darkness, asked to find that I can do a few things for myself, even as I trust that God is [...]
I’ve been working out some things with the help of a Professional ™ and for once am making some progress. Today’s discussion was around identifying the strategies that I evolved as a pup to deal with the chaotic crazymaking place I called home. In order to survive, Pup Pooch had to:
refrain from feeling anything (optimal), [...]
NTodd, who’s been joining CodePink actions lately, tries to jolt me out of my stuck place:
The point is not to win over the unwinnable people, nor is it even to convince the alleged fence-sitters who would’ve come over to our side if only we’d not worn fucking pink spandex and tiaras. The point is [...]
I’ve been a fan of Lynda Barry ever since I first ran across Ernie Pook’s Comeek in an alt-weekly in the late 1980s. I’ve often been astonished by her uncanny ability to invoke precise details of childhood and adolescence, and after reading her latest book, What It Is, I finally begin to get a [...]
Rev. Sean had a weekend encounter with some spiritual practices which were not comfortable or easy for him, but which moved him to reflect:
Our culture tries so hard to teach us that we are the center of the Universe and we should never want for anything. How dare life make us unhappy! How dare [...]
I try not to engage in pointless argument, often pre-emptively giving up on what looks hopeless from the start. The metric for “pointless” has to do with the possibility that either arguer could possibly get through to the other, that neither’s mind is jammed shut on the topic at hand.
I would like to think [...]
I’m not fun.
I can enjoy time spent with my own kids, and occasionally even other kids, but I lack that skill that some have of just evoking spontaneous or creating planned fun.
I first noticed this when my kids attended a co-op preschool where I worked as a parent helper once or twice a [...]
