Blog
We are the book we’re talking about
And we are what’s at stake in truth-telling. If the interlocutor opposes me because of who I am, will they be impressed that I read a book? No. Even if it is a book they have heard of? No.
Humility: A needed balance
On early modern philosophers and online trolls. In Lewis Carroll’s ‘You Are Old, Father William,’ a young person asks: ‘You balanced an eel on the end of your nose - / What made you so awfully clever?’
What is human dignity?
Where does it come from? How do we know it exists? Does dignity need to be pinned to God, or can it have secular grounding? Is it about humility, pride, or both? What does interdependence have to do with it?
Impossibility I Represent: A poem of transgender persistence
With a nod to 3,100 mostly anti-trans bots. Thank you, bots, for giving me this poem. From your unsubstantiated positions and your occasionally rhythmic words, I’ve forged this.
Change your thoughts. Go forth! Change our world
20th-century U.S. preachers on anti-fundamentalism and the law of attraction. Let’s embrace our own growth as individuals and pay attention to how our cultures are growing too, so our own lives might be well-lived.
We’ll always have stories
Robots may someday have more rights than people, but I doubt they’ll experience stories at greater depth. Stories of Great Depth are knit collectively to express what we don’t know and don’t say, stretching from before our births to after our deaths.
Do we find truth in stories? In nostalgia? (A contemplation)
‘Beneath the exhausted rubble of our hearts, this miraculous potion awakened something strangely precious’ — Heinrich Böll. Snow falls lightly on the street vendors. He smells cheap tobacco, hears the squeak of chalk on a blackboard, sees a woman scrubbing a front step.
Stoking ‘trans panic’?! We have to create other political narratives
Andrea Pitzer’s video on ‘Ending Trans Panic’. Political risk doesn’t always fall on the side of standing up for people’s rights. Sometimes, supporting people’s rights helps you win elections.
I’m ‘disdainful’ of the latest U.S. court ruling against trans kids
No one asked me, but 🏳️⚧️ I’ll speak up while I still can. Connecting two court cases: US v. Skrmetti and Anderson v. Crouch. We exist, we should have basic rights, we can explain why. They want to stop us.