Problems of Adulthood

Life was simpler when we were children. I’m pretty sure many, if not all, of us adults have at some point heard that same thought echo in our heads, while wistfully reminiscing bygone days when our biggest problems were fitting our huge sticker collection into one sticker book and convincing our parents to give us […]

Away, Against, Toward: The 3 Neurotic Trends

A child is small. It starts out life mostly dependent on others for survival, essentially helpless and at the mercy of the people around him. … Now, to this child one of two things may happen. On the one hand, the child may experience genuine warmth and affection from his parents. This satisfies the child’s […]

If You’ve Ever Lost Someone

Loss doesn’t happen the same way each time. … If you’ve ever lost someone, by your own actions — like because you were mean, or pushed them away, or did something stupid — apologize. Whenever possible, make amends. Forgive yourself. … If you’ve ever lost someone, by their actions — like because they were mean, or pushed you […]

Social Media Shaming: Go or No?

Recently, I’ve noticed an increase in the circulation of social media posts that publicly narrate some sort of offense or wrongdoing by a private person, whose name and photo are typically included (even tagged) in the post. Usually, the one posting is the person who was offended, and in all fairness, it’s often the case […]

Why I Blog (A Ranking of 4 Motives)

“Putting aside the need to earn a living, I think there are four great motives for writing, at any rate for writing prose. They exist in different degrees in every writer, and in any one writer the proportions will vary from time to time, according to the atmosphere in which he is living.” ~ George […]

Kill or Be Killed

Yesterday, I sat with my 9-year-old nephew as he engaged in one of his favorite pastimes, watching gameplay videos of YouTubers Pat and Jen playing Minecraft. As we watched, he explained to me some mechanics of the ongoing game, which at the time was Bed Wars. There were 8 teams, each composed of a pair. […]

Square Poem: If we both fall in love

So, yesterday I saw a post about a “square poem” often attributed to Lewis Carroll (although as to who the real author is seems ambiguous). A square poem is apparently one whose words you could read either in rows (horizontally) or in columns (vertically); the poem would read the same. Here’s Lewis Carroll’s square poem: […]

The Vacancy of Leaving

Do they have a word for the vacancy you feel after leaving? … I dreamed that I was back in a familiar place, which was home to many people I loved. I was aware that I was back only for a visit, not to stay for long. We were having some sort of a party/happy […]