Essays

Blog

closeup of ox in a field, looking up its nostrils

What Rude Magic Is This (A Poem)

September 10, 2025

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.

Print newspaper article: Dr. Cutter issues warning in administering hormones. The print is small, and the relevant parts have already been quoted in the Medium story.

No one knows ‘exact role’ of hormones in sex development, doctor once said

July 9, 2025

‘Dr. Cutter issues warning in administering hormones’ to minors. Don’t worry. It was a long time ago. Dr. Irving Cutter was the dean of the Northwestern University medical school. He advised parents to feed their kids better before seeking hormone treatment.

see-through cut-out human figure standing inside the pages of a book, turning the page

95 books I plan to read in 2025

July 9, 2025

Here’s my New Year’s reading resolution. I scanned the 3,000 titles on my ‘to be read’ list and selected the ones I’ll prioritize in 2025.

Top Posts

The Living Cathedral of Knowledge

Everything Around Us? It’s ‘The Surround.’

Green Birds Are Birds

large cross on a pointed roof seen against a pink cloudy sky

‘Spiritual Warriors’ documentary on Christian Nationalism at the Capitol riot

October 25, 2024

Learn about the New Apostolic Reformation. ‘Spiritual Warriors: Decoding Christian Nationalism at the Capitol Riot’ is a short documentary made by the Institute for Islamic, Christian & Jewish Studies.

cartoon of a jack-in-the-box with a frazzled character popping up. dollar bills fall chaotically from the sky. the background is a red brick wall, the color of MAGA

The $120 million anti-trans joke

October 25, 2024

We used to call it ‘the one joke,’ but now they’ve gone and spent money on it. Two-thirds of voters want politicians to stop attacking trans people and just talk about the economy. Republicans are most likely to say they want this.

La palabra lo encaja todo, atrapa posibilidades. Nos atrapa a nosotros. Image: inside a red box is a snail with a multicolored shell. its mouth is hanging open. inside its mouth is a tiny human figure.

Secretamos la concha / We secrete the shell

October 23, 2024

Un ensayo ilustrado sobre el conocimiento / An illustrated essay on knowledge. Mini-illustrations about not grabbing too tight and instead growing that which we’ll carry with us. In English (plain text) and Spanish (in images).

Latin text in black and red ink with a blue and red illustration of a bearded man holding a book and a tool like a hatchet

Why do politicians ‘swear in to office’ on a Bible?

October 23, 2024

Doing so is supposed to appear solemn, but it can’t really bind them to their promise. The politician may not believe God holds them accountable for promises on a Bible. Swearing in on a Bible only shows the cultural power of Christianity.

person with long hair and sunset, wearing lace under a white shirt, raising hands in a field of tall grass glowing with sunset

Two Duggar memoirs: Jill and Jinger as adults

October 23, 2024

Neither their abusive older brother nor the IBLP Christian fundamentalist organization is part of their lives now. The IBLP not only opposes women’s rights and no-fault divorce, it also promotes the idea that husbands are the leaders of their wives and children.