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duck dipping head under water, duck butt pointing up in the air

5 ways philosophy fails (sometimes)

Too much time looking down, forgetting to come up for air. I do philosophy. I must accept there’s no one true answer. I must care, help others care, be practical, keep going. I’ll fail often. I hope for small wins.

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closeup of a coin that says Alfr. Nobel embossed with his image

Can a man take a woman’s gold medal?

After years insisting it’s a cardinal sin, he did it. Transness is real; it just isn’t made of metal. The prize can’t be transferred. If you don’t have transness, that’s fine. You inhabit yourself.

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Tucker Lieberman seated in a wine-colored armchair, wearing a similarly colored T-shirt. He's in his 40s, white, blue-eyed, balding and bearded. He has a quizzical expression.

Am I the right kind of gay and trans for you?

Why our identities matter so much to us, why we bring them up, and why we use our favorite labels. My identity isn’t a bargaining chip. It’s an intangible. Try to touch it. It’ll vanish. The label denotes the space through which breath and fire passes.

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closeup of ox in a field, looking up its nostrils

What Rude Magic Is This (A Poem)

With the background of how I wrote it. I didn’t know what to do with three poems I lost and half-forgot. Now I hear Jacob’s epiphany as a kind of rude magic. The poems come back to me.

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