When I worked on my exams for high school,my grandmother died —And I thought that was hard. When I prepared for my college entrance,my teacher intoned, “Thy path to paradise begins in hell”.And I thought that was hard. When I started my first job,running around, feeling like a clown,thinking “this is damn hard.” Then in another…
Tag: self-care
Editor, Writer, Thrower of Wet Spaghetti
Throw a bunch of wet spaghetti at the wall. See what sticks. Who knew that the thing your parents told you not to do as a kid would be vital to your mental stability as an adult? And would be vital to my job as an editor. I have been editing this website for about…
Mental Health Month Starts with a Breakdown
What a way to start off mental health month…with a meltdown, right? But that’s exactly what happened. Although Adam and I have never formally defined our roles, there are certain things we just fell into doing–he has editorial skills and experience that I don’t, I can do things with web pages that he can’t, and…
The “Nice Guy” Fallacy
Massive content warning: If you yourself are a survivor of sexual assault, you have our permission to skip this piece. It’s up to you. But please pass it along. The essay that follows contains descriptions of sexual assault. Rape and sexual assault can happen to anyone regardless of gender identity or gender presentation. Likewise, issues…
Is this a Jook?: Congee Made me Feel Sick
The Trigger: Congee Restaurant December 2017. In a hostel room in Seoul, Zoe was flipping through pages of her itinerary. She was rehearsing in her head where to go and what to eat first. Winter in Seoul is never pleasant to people from the south, as the coldest days in Hong Kong never fall below…
The World is Big. Keep Going, Son.
In our first delivery we find Stuart with Aleena soon after their marriage, in their beachside house together, sharing breakfast after a night of lovemaking. We get the sense they are living a life of privilege and of exploring affirmative mind-states. Since that opening delivery we jumped back in time to dig around in Stuart’s…
Why We Need to “Flaunt” It
On a sunny Sunday afternoon in June, 1980-something, I was helping my mother change the sheets on her bed. I was in my early teens. Local news was covering the NYC Pride Parade and my mother turned to me, made a limp-wrist gesture and said, “Why do they need to flaunt it?” She continued, “I…
Women’s History Month: Healing and Anger
Adam and I have often spoken about how one of our goals is to amplify voices that may not be heard. Which kind of obligates us to address the fact that March is Women’s History Month. I’ve had a note in our 2 Rules calendar about Women’s History Month for a while, but it just…
Potential (Caturday Questions)
Little Cat is 17 years old. Things have gotten to the point where he has considered retiring from his job of periodically running away from home and scaring the crap out of Human-Mom. It’s bittersweet. He’s very good at his job. And he obviously loves it. But like so many consummate professionals, he’ll probably retire…
Dance Studio and Classroom
The other day, one of my second grade students, Sally, invited me to her seventh birthday party. Be Careful what you Wish For She is young for this grade. Most of the other students are seven turning eight. She actually skipped first grade. And when you think about the pandemic online year she suffered through,…