The wind . . . gently caressing . . . building whirling bringing . . . carrying from disparate places to one . . .and away away . . . unsettled, waiting to take flight . . . journeying again and again returning returning . . . The wind . . . As a […]
Lessons – an exploration of how I learned to be
In Bobbie Harro’s Cycle of Socialization and Cycle of Liberation, I learned about the lessons we are taught in our society tied to the identities we are given and assume. For example, I was taught how to be a man to assume the “masculine” roles I would play in school, business, fatherhood and community. I […]
No one ever asked
No one ever asked me, would you like to be a boy? Man? White? Straight? Middle-class? Roman Catholic? Able? No, I was never asked. If I were asked, especially at the time I started to learn about these identities, I wouldn’t have known what to say. I wouldn’t have known to ask, what’s a […]
Miracle
One of the things I like to do to get me into the Christmas spirit, is to watch the 1947 version Miracle on 34thstreet, with Maureen O’Hara, John Payne, Natalie Wood and Edmund Gwynn. Every time I watch it I turn into a blubbering mess. Sometimes I think it has to do with wanting to […]
Miasma
For some time I have known that my life, when not aligned to the person I mean to be, careens into dark corners as I spill my life force into the waste of despair. I know it sounds a little dramatic, yeah. I haven’t really known, but I am feeling some kind of way, as […]
Practice – Listening as an intensely relational act
Carol Gilligan opens her book, In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development, with a letter to her readers that call attention to listening and voice. To have a voice is to be human. To have something to say is to be a person. But speaking depends on listening and being heard; it is […]
A path unfolded
I hadn’t heard from Henry for weeks, which is unusual, but there have been times when our communication was broken when he lost or replaced a phone, got a new phone number or something like that. This felt different and when Esther sensed there was something wrong, I texted Henry’s mom, no reply. Then I […]
You are here . . .
I am reading Naomi Ortiz’s beautiful book this morning, Sustaining Spirit: Self-Care for Social Justice. She asks, what is my connection and what is my relationship to whatever I might say is God? Since I have been on this spiritual journey, I have stopped to look at the map and look for the “X” to […]
Agent
I ran into myself as an agent of the patriarchy a few times yesterday. It started with my meeting with Harry, who I want to describe in diminishing ways right now: sweet, old, naïve, well-intentioned, lonely, pathetic . . .and ultimately a risk to the work “I’ am trying to do with other men. He looks […]
Weight
If I am your friend and I know you live in poverty, and I know what you need, then what? In the past couple of weeks, you have let me see the “Acme Anvil” weight of poverty you are feeling, and feel every day. $5,000 to pay your tuition and fees so you can earn […]
what i choose to see 