October 11 is National Coming Out Day. (We’ve also got World Mental Health Day on October 10 and, on October 14, the forty fifth anniversary of Anita Bryant, singer and notorious homophobe, getting hit in the face with a pie.) National Coming Out Day is sort of contemporary take on second wave feminism’s mantra “the…
Tag: reflections
An Archaic Concept of Me: Mutual Proposal
We are moving into Delivery 8, where we discover more about the early adult life of the fictional characters, Aleena and Stuart. If you prefer to read contiguously from the opening sentence forward, here are links to the previous 7 deliveries onto 2 Rules of Writing. https://2rulesofwriting.com/another-world-within/an-archaic-concept-of-me/ https://2rulesofwriting.com/another-world-within/an-archaic-concept-of-me-2/ https://2rulesofwriting.com/another-world-within/to-the-future-where-we-know-ourselves/ https://2rulesofwriting.com/another-world-within/archaic-concept-of-me-keep-going-son/ https://2rulesofwriting.com/another-world-within/mindfulness-archaic-concept-5/ https://2rulesofwriting.com/another-world-within/archaic-concept-of-me-shoulder-energy/ https://2rulesofwriting.com/another-world-within/forget-it-an-archaic-concept-of-me-delivery-7/ Where we began,…
India is… Too Big for One Article (Bangalore Letter #3)
I am here in India getting to know Anuja and her family and her country. Tall order. People back home in the United States are going through some serious stuff and I’m only able to call them or text them every so often because of the time difference. Ukraine is at war with Russia. Sri…
Oyster Sauce Gravy Wingettes: Childhood Memories
It should go without much dispute: for many people, our eating preferences came from the kitchen which our moms didn’t let us enter. The kitchen, soaked in lemon yellow sunlight late in the afternoon, or glowing fluorescent white in the evening, speaks magic. Dish after dish of vegetables and meat filled our grumbling stomachs; brought…
Mr. Misunderstanding: Prof. Parker
In loving memory of David Parker (1943-2015) A Good Teacher is Hard to Find, Episode 2 As there’s no good place to start, let me walkbackwards till, I bump into you. Mr. Misunderstanding On numerous occasions, Prof. Parker asked me to call him David, but for some unknown reason, I had never been able to…
COVID: An Essay
One of my favorite authors, Michel de Montaigne, put the name “essais,” to a genre of literature that is at least as old as the Roman Republic. The word means “attempts.” The idea is that the literary work does not need to follow a set form, but rather could follow the workings of the human…
On Profiles
There are few genres of journalism I enjoy more than the profile: 2,000 to 10,000 words on a single individual. Sometimes this is a mega-famous celebrity, sometimes it’s an ordinary person, but the best profiles are of people who are well-known within certain circles, whose life and works are demonstrative of a larger trend in…
Sharing a Poem
Very occasionally, I have the impetus to write a poem. And very much less occasionally, I have the impetus to share. It’s a strange feeling for me. Erika and I started this website because we wanted a forum for sharing our writing. And the writing of others. And yet I feel private and protective concerning…
Titanic: 25 Years Later
Titanic was my favorite film when I was a kid. Well, one of them at least. It holds my personal record for number of times I have seen a film in the theater—four. Titanic (Cameron, 1997) was released when I nine years old. I was truly obsessed—ripping every nuance to shreds and talking to my…
The Writing Group: No Single Authors
Writing is often seen as a lonely journey. Whether you’re a content creator, a novelist or the author of a journal article. Imagine having to hide in a cubicle the whole day, not allowing yourself to get out, eat or drink, go to the washroom… Or picture yourself getting up painstakingly early just to write…