I love underdog stories. I think most of us do. As a teacher, I’m particularly aligned to admire the tale of someone overcoming a great obstacle in order to succeed. It’s important to remember that our most vulnerable youth can confront the obstacles put in their way. At the same time, we can become so…
Author: Clio
Express Yourself
Watching my child play online with his friends, I notice that one of the primary ways that we learn how to navigate our emotions is by seeing others express them. It is common and normal to playfully refuse to follow requests, and to make inappropriate requests. My child is currently playing Minecraft, for instance, and…
This Is Only Tempora
In a public restroom today, I saw a sticker that said, “this is only tempora”. It was missing two letters because someone had attempted to pull it off, succeeding only in tearing off the lower right corner. The top of the sticker was also peeled down slightly, as if someone had tried to roll it…
How To Be an Antiracist (Book Review)
A decade ago, Jay Smooth released a video entitled, “How To Tell Someone They Sound Racist.” The message was straightforward: Focus on the deed, not the person. Don’t accuse someone of being racist (or, worse yet, “a racist”); instead, emphasize that the action is racist. Smooth’s emphasis is on the idea that calling someone racist…
Invisibility
One of the characteristics of the Avoidant is a pervasive feeling of invisibility. This is related to low self-esteem and feelings of insignificance. One of my coping mechanisms has been my ability to express myself through writing. Prior to the advent of social media, writing was generally a non-confrontational communication method. Writers are separated from…
Hills and Bridges
I was taking an online mental health quiz and I got to this question: “Do you often see potential for danger in situations that others in your life take part in without a second thought?” And I thought about my recurring fear of hills and bridges, and how it feels like a metaphor for ……
The Box Inside the Box
The thing these days is to speak of “the man box” and “toxic masculinity” in one breath, as if the two are the same thing and if we only found a way to detoxify manhood, we’d be all done with the man box. But the idea that men shouldn’t wear skirts isn’t limited to toxicity….
Weaponizing “Bullying”
I’m a member of a teacher group that loves weaponizing the word “bullying.” It got so bad that I left it for a few weeks to get my focus back. Bullying is a serious problem, and one that we tend to wrongly assume is limited to children. Bullying occurs when one person abuses their power…
Treat Mass Shootings as a Manhood Issue
In the 2005 movie “Syriana,” a Pakistani migrant worker named Wasim is on the verge of getting deported when he loses his job at an oil refinery. As his story unfolds, he gets seduced by an Islamic extremist, who ultimately convinces him to execute a suicide attack on the company that laid him off. Normally,…
A Time to Keep Silent
The stereotypical mother says, “If you can’t say something nice….” That exhortation is meant to remind us that we shouldn’t say mean things about other people. Well, okay. I think there are times to say mean things about other people, but that’s not the point of my sermon here today. I used to be quite…