Here is this week’s list of blog posts, short stories, quotes and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.
You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.- Winston Churchill
When I am a Dog I am Barking. Readers, this is one of those rare links that I share without fully understanding what it is I’m sending you to check out. I can’t decide if this poem/essay is meant to be intellectually deep or intentionally silly. Is it telling us to cherish our true selves rather than try to hammer our interests and personalities into labels or is it a private joke for people who live with golden retrievers? I’m not ashamed to admit I don’t know the answer to this. Click on the link anyways!
True Friends Ask How the Sex Is. NSFW. As a rather private person I have mixed feelings about this. I’m shy about discussing sex in groups especially if the conversation shifts to include graphic details of what everyone is (or isn’t) doing in bed. Call me old fashioned but I think there’s something to be said for keeping the rest of the world out of your most intimate moments. I definitely see the value of honest discussions with a small circle of close friends, though. Hollywood’s ideas on this topic do not always correspond to what it’s actually like to lose your virginity or be in a longterm relationship. 😉
From Armless Maidens of the American West:
There’s no telling what the armless maiden did.
It doesn’t matter now. To her father, it was offense enough to warrant what happened. To anyone else, what happened was a crime beyond measure; what happened to her was a horror.
(Where they were when her father picked up the axe, there’s no telling.)
She’s been living in the woods as long as you can remember, though no one talks about it much where you are. Live and let live. If she stays off the golf course, no one minds her.
What Do Grown Children Owe Their Abusive Parents? This author’s estimate that 20% of children are abused or neglected while growing up is depressing and (un)believable.
Two Body Interactions: A Longitudinal Study. A paper written by a physicist in order to propose to his girlfriend. Drew and I became engaged after discussing how much we loved one another. Â He asked me to marry him and then I asked him to marry me!
Dancing Through Life: Six Years Later. A powerful essay about loss, forgiveness and finding peace written by someone I know in real life.
Imagine living in a world without trees. Banyan is literally and figuratively Rootless, having been separated from his father and surviving on the only “food” mankind has left, genetically modified corn. To make ends meet he builds metal trees for wealthy benefactors.
Whether you’re interested in stories about universal malnutrition, how a teenager survives on his own in a dangerously libertarian society, the long term effects of global warming, or what happens when the government can no longer protect the poor from severe exploitation this book has something for every reader.
What have you been reading?