Experiments in the Art of Mastering None
For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed creating my own challenges. Generally, this means increasing the level of difficulty inherent in dull or overly simplistic situations by adding extra limits, or constraints, to either my behavior or my thinking. It is my feeling that self-imposed limits, or self-created challenges, can transform rote … Continue reading On Adaptability
As I reflect on the material contained in my last several posts, Miss Cherry excluded, I find myself observing a number of interesting shifts in my perspective on this blogging project, especially over the course of the last month. What began as a rather rudimentary and unfettered attempt to apply bits of psychological theory to … Continue reading Re-Arrangements
It may be said that our erotic lives are comprised of the many expressions of our sexual imagination, or, put differently, that eroticism is sexuality transformed by the imagination, sublimated and refined for social consumption. I don’t think that definition is wrong. In fact, I think it’s pretty much right, however incomplete. When we think … Continue reading On the Eroticism of Everyday Life
When I think of what it means to “have taste,” my mind immediately conjures images of outward refinement: a shirking of excess, an elevated coolness, and a curtailing of expression, culminating in just the perfect amount of artistic and intellectual snobbery to satisfy one’s professional and social circles. I don’t particularly like that my mind … Continue reading On Taste
I have a difficult time conceiving of my creative and intellectual abilities, or anyone else’s, in terms of distinct aptitudes. I think, instead, that our skills and proclivities are constantly evolving, unfolding, and overlapping in such an untidy fashion that, to define ourselves by a series of clear-cut abilities (and inabilities) can not be only … Continue reading In the Middle
This isn’t a post about beauty standards or body image. It’s a post about coping with the reality that we—both women and men—are constantly subjected to an array of internal and external standards regarding our physical appearance. Some of those standards matter. Others aren’t deserving of our attention (even though ignoring them can be easier … Continue reading Appearances Matter.
Several years ago, when I was applying for graduate school admissions, I visited a former English professor asking for a letter of recommendation. We had a nice meeting, and during our chat, he made a remark about his students that was puzzling enough, to me, to have made an indelible impression: “All of the English … Continue reading On Choosing Your Mentors
