“Mom, what makes me special?”

September 8, 2017.Reading time 7 minutes.

#2 Cherub came home from her first day of 7th grade yesterday and asked, “What makes me special?” I thought this might be a preface to her upcoming birthday, but it was homework, a getting-to-know-you worksheet from one of her teachers. (The worksheet also required her to calculate how many days she’s been alive. As […]

Calling Bullsh*t on the Trauma of Being Alive

August 5, 2013.Reading time 9 minutes.

I just read an article in today’s New York Times called The Trauma of Being Alive. It pissed me off. It feeds the dysfunctional obsession with defining ourselves in terms of the worst thing that has happened so far. Child of bad parents? Been through an ugly divorce? Lose a friend or sibling or parent […]