I have a bone to pick with self-optimization culture. Biohacking, perfect mourning/evening routines macro-counting, optimized sleep/diet/exercise/workflows. Athletic f**king Greens. Podcasts on how to fine-tune this, that, and the other to the point at which it is infeasible to stuff all of the recommended good habits into a single 24 cycle. This article is a diatribe…
The original version of this article was posted in November, 2022. Chapter V.I walk down a different street. Autobiography in Five Short Chapters, Portia Nelson Friends, we are turning into adults. This didn’t happen when we turned 16, of 18 or 21, or when we wore gowns and received certificate in Latin on graduation day.…
The original version of this article was posted on a private blog shared amongst friends in October, 2022. Names have been changed to protect identities. This short but poignant Ted Talk was given by a man who was on board the plane that successfully landed in the Hudson river upon malfunction on January 15th, 2009.…
There is a prevailing notion that one must first surpass the threshold of survival before they can aspire to thrive. That we must first get our affairs in order, secure a firm foundation of emotional and physical health, attain a required level of security in in one’s abilities and confidence in one’s aspirations; and only…
Through my adventures and misadventures with romantic relationships, intimate friendships, polyamory, and bisexuality – I, along with a distributed squad of instructive authors I wish I were friends with, have developed, and continue to develop, my own guidebook of sorts on how to love people honestly and ethically. Until now it has been a mental…
I don’t think that the above adage, attributed to The Amazing Spiderman, is a useful one. Telling people of power that they are obligated to be proactive with that power is unlikely to win them over. Nobody likes to be told what to do or what they should be doing. People with power, be it…
Why, for those of us first worlders who, ostensibly all least, have all of our needs met, does life seem so hard sometimes? If we look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (illustrated below), money can only really buy us the base – ‘physiological needs’. One out of eight down. ‘Safety’ encompasses health, personal security, emotional…
all you need for love To love someone, in my continuously evolving view, is a) to want to understand them, b) to want to facilitate them to meet their needs and c) to want to play with them. Let’s break that down: understanding Firstly, we acknowledge that you cannot fully understand this turbulent, chaotic ocean…
On their blog, adrienne maree brown (amb) writes of the importance of articulating what we want and do not want in our interactions with other humans: When you feel something come up that you want to say but you’re scared to say, you’re on the precipice between the lie of omission and the bravery of…
First, I was infatuated with the anticipation, the novelty, the courtship you offered, and the best self you put forward, as we all do in the early stages of a relationship. Then, we no longer shared a casual connection, but we didn’t know what had taken its place. I felt the low hum of a…