Half-Assed Engagement--Why Bother?
Today’s issue of The On-The-Other-Hand News comes to you via C. Thi Nguyen and Bekka Williams’ article in The New York Times from Sunday, July 28, 2019. Its title is: “Why We Call Things ‘Porn’.”
I will cop to it upfront. I am not a Facebook person. There are several reasons for it, but the main one is: I don’t get it. It has been TMI from day one as far as I’m concerned.
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A Femme's Christmas Tree Cheat Sheet
It’s time once again for A Femme’s Christmas Tree Cheat Sheet—Everything You Need to Know in Order to Have Someone Else Put Up Your Christmas Tree Perfectly
Plans & Prep [in order of requirement] so as not to necessitate the annual reinvention of the wheel. Butches just do not put up Christmas Trees often enough to remember these vital details!
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First Things First—Secrets, Silence, Stigma, Shame
Composer and author Michael R. Jackson, author of Off-Broadway musical hit A Strange Loop, says it all, “It is your self-hatred that will kill you,” he said. “Secrets, silence, stigma, shame—that is the virus.”
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Self-Help is Not Self-Care—The Two Can Be Cousins, But Not Always
Self-help is not self-care, but self-care can be self-help. Kate Carraway’s Analysis piece in The New York Times made me sad. Is there anything we fail to turn into commerce? Anything? At all? Lately, the answer seems to be no. There’s even a relatively new word for this: monetizing [first usage unrelated to the silver or gold standard, 1997, OED].
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When Theatre Is A Religious Experience—Wait, Isn’t it Always?
When I went off to college, my mother forbade me to major in theatre. She said I needed to learn something that would lead to a career,* and that the theatre was pie-in-the-sky. I promptly developed a bleeding ulcer which I brought home with me at Christmastime. By the eve of the holiday, I was majoring in theatre.
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Minds? Even Worse, Our Wills Can Be Hi-Jacked: What’s a Body/Heart/Mind/ Spirit Creature Supposed to Do?
“People ..., research shows, touch, swipe or tap their phone 2,617 times a day.”
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A Forced Fit
Jigsaw puzzles sustain my prayer life. Needing stillness and silence to hear the still, small voice of my inner knowing, the visual distraction of searching out and placing puzzle pieces quiets my endlessly chattering mind. Yesterday, I forced a piece to fit where it didn’t belong.
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When Rite Becomes Rote—How Habit Harms
Today’s issue of The On-The-Other-Hand News comes to you via author Amy Westervelt’s article in The New York Times Sunday Review from May 26, 2019. Its title is: “The Surprising Benefits of Relentlessly Auditing Your Life.”
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Power Over Only Works One Way—Inward
Today’s issue of The On-The-Other-Hand News comes to you via Op-Ed editor Susan Fowler’s article in The New York Times Sunday Review from Thursday, May 30, 2019. Its title is: “Before I Could Change the World, I Had to Change Myself.”
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A Room of One's Own
This weekend we held our first annual #QueerMo #NaNoWriMo Retreat, and was it productive! We added the #QueerMo to it because we at Cupcake Manor—the retreat house in the Hudson River Valley where we live—have been, in one form or another, encouraging queer artists for more than 30 years.
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