Caught up, as we are, in the spellbinding effects of language, we often lose sight of the arbitrary nature of words: of the simple fact that words have no essential relation to the concepts they represent. After all, a word — whether it comes as a marking on a page…
Microaggressions are a complicated beast. On the one hand, they can be so quick and casual, so seemingly trivial in their appearance, that addressing them can seem heavy-handed, or even silly. On the other hand, they often reflect deep insensitivities which, if left unchecked, can perpetuate the disrespect and devaluing…
For the most part, the truth is a hard thing to come by. The truth about the world yields only to careful scientific techniques. The truth about others is shrouded in fronts and facades. Even the truth about ourselves is distorted by biases and self-deceptions.
But there’s one truth we…
Sparing a boatride down the rivers of the Amazon rainforest, a trek across the tundras of Northern Siberia, or a huddle at the campsites of the Cherokee Nation, most of us won’t be meeting a shaman anytime soon. But thanks to the comprehensive descriptions given to us by Micrea Eliade…
Embryonic development can be likened to a performance: it involves a wide range of characters, each of which plays a specific role.
Here’s the script which the Divine Playwright has assembled, setting into motion every human existence, until the day the curtains drop.
Act 1: Copulating | Act 2: Racing…
A shaman, a ferryman, a doctor, a midwife. A trip-sitter is similar to all of them — similar, but not identical, because their task doesn’t involve a myth or an oar or a prescription-pad, but very simply, a trusting relationship.
A trip-sitter is a person who guides and supports the…
Life can take you to the ugliest of places and most dire of circumstances, torment and humiliate you endlessly, leave you paralyzed and struck with grief and indignancy and confusion. Life can do a most impressive thing, which is to leave you disdainful of life itself, contemptuous of every breath…
We want to be ourselves, we want to love ourselves, we want to improve ourselves — despite the fact that we sometimes can’t help ourselves.
What is this ‘self’ that we’re so preoccupied with? We know that psychological growth involves a healthier and more appropriate relationship with ourselves. But what…
Your pet gets sick, nears the end of its life, and becomes severely debilitated. It limps, it moans, it struggles to see. You look at it one day and finally decide: it’s time to put it down.
To put down a pet isn’t literal, of course: it’s a euphemism for…
As a young boy in Columbus, Indiana, I attended an elementary school called ABC Stewart. Last night, having been primed for nostalgia by some Thanksgiving-inspired reminiscing, my family and I went through old boxes in a storage room, where we came across the school’s 2004 yearbook.
The cover features a…
