Monthly Archives: December 2020

What’s the difference? Not everything is your fault. In fact, most things are not your fault; you had nothing to do with them. You didn’t ask to be born to these people or at this time or this place, at least so far as we know. You didn’t invent the language you speak. You didn’tContinue reading “Responsibility and Blame”

I have an idea for a new business opportunity for us shrinks. You know how they have anger management classes that judges, employers, and spouses send people to when they keep losing their cool? The kind like in the movie with Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson? Yeah, that. Well, anger’s not the only emotion thatContinue reading “Disgust Management”

If you need to be convinced that the feeling of disgust is a peculiarly powerful and primitive emotion, try this experiment. Get a clean glass. Spit in it. Now drink it. Even if you can drink the spit, you know what I’m talking about. You know there’s nothing wrong with the spit. You swallow yourContinue reading “Disgust”

Forget the stages, forget the “correct” order. Grief is more like a gumbo than a Powerpoint presentation These days, no one can shed a tear without someone mentioning the five stages of grief. I’m convinced that when people sit with the bereft, they bring up the stages just so that they can have something toContinue reading “The Gumbo of Grief”

You don’t even need to be religious You may think you know all about Christmas, but you may not realize that you’re missing a whole ‘nother holiday between Thanksgiving and December twenty-fifth. No, I don’t mean Black Friday. You’re missing Advent. Continue reading →