Let’s begin with a story. When I was a kid the major sex columnist, the one that all we curious Toronto teens clamoured to read reprints of in the local free press, was Dan Savage. Dan had his share of controversies over the years, spam-can-related and otherwise, but he especially seemed to lose currency with the LGBTQ+ community, in later years, over his use of “tranny” once the community at large no longer tolerated its use. (There was a whole… Read more
January 15, 2020
What We Talk About When We Talk About Gender: Lessons from a Recent Incident in Secular Storytelling
January 15, 2020 By M. L. Clark
17 Comments
January 12, 2020
How To Weaponize Anything: Problematizing the Secular World
January 12, 2020 By M. L. Clark
8 Comments
Let’s begin with a word. This one might be my least favourite: problematic. I once had a MacBook with a built-in dictionary widget that defined “problematic” as a purely academic term–and not in a positive way. I was an academic at the time, and I agreed; there’s nothing in the term, content-wise, that couldn’t already be said with “troubling”–except that “troubling” is too emotional, too personal. “Problematic” has an emotionally detached and definitively reasoned air to it. As such, it… Read more
January 4, 2020
Stories We Will Spend A Lifetime Outgrowing: On Gender Stereotypes and Humanism
January 4, 2020 By M. L. Clark
7 Comments
Let’s begin with a story. This one is Toni Morrison’s, from Song of Solomon (1977): It’s Lena’s memory of her little brother, Milkman, urinating on her. This wasn’t a spiteful act so much as one done carelessly, and all throughout Song of Solomon, Milkman is tasked with learning similar about how he’s moved through life: how, even as he has been wronged by many, so has he incuriously wronged in turn. Lena shares this memory to explain how he’s especially taken… Read more
December 31, 2019
Humanism 2020: Less “Misery Porn,” More Empirical Empathy
December 31, 2019 By M. L. Clark
10 Comments
Let’s begin with a story. The day after Christmas, I was stocking up for this week’s stint of writing-isolation. Others, of course, were out for Boxing Day sales (yes, even in Colombia!), while still others–the beggars who had taken Christmas off because the streets would be empty–had returned to their informal labours. In the 28-degree-Celsius midday heat, under a bright near-equatorial sun, families with small children sat in the shade with their sweets and wafers, while old men and women… Read more
December 22, 2019
Do We Live As If There Is No God? Secular Humanism’s Focus
December 22, 2019 By M. L. Clark
6 Comments
Let’s begin with a story. This one comes from In the Dark, Season 2, which outlined the stark injustice visited upon a man named Curtis Flowers, tried an historic six times for the same crime: the murder of four people in a furniture store in Winona, Mississippi on July 16, 1996. With no direct evidence tying him to the crime, a dogged prosecutor used a range of other approaches to get his convictions, each one then overturned. With the help of… Read more
December 17, 2019
Gratitude Woes: What Colombia Keeps Teaching Me About Being “Enough”
December 17, 2019 By M. L. Clark
1 Comment
Let’s begin with a story. My end-of-year work party probably looked a bit different from yours. Whereas most North Americans are used to placing financial success at the fore of their work, I don’t make much money at my primary place of employment here: none of the main staff does. (It is, however, my life-line for a visa!) And so, our work “party” instead involved… a speech from the boss. About values. About our need to be thankful for being… Read more
December 9, 2019
Humanism and Suicidal Ideation: A Secular Struggle for Agency
December 9, 2019 By M. L. Clark
13 Comments
Let’s begin with a warning. I strive always to remind readers when I am not an expert in a given topic, and for today’s essay it is critical that we’re clear on this accord. I have no degree in psychology or social-work; I am not a neuroscientist or medical practitioner. I am simply a humanist who has lived with suicidal ideation since they were eight. At eight, I used to etch the words “I want to die” in the earth… Read more
December 4, 2019
Beyond the Biological: Why Humanists Must Be Leery of “Inner Drive”
December 4, 2019 By M. L. Clark
16 Comments
Let’s begin with a story. When I lived in Southern Ontario, my most heart-heavy season was that long stretch of winter in which cloud coverage blotted out the sky for weeks: a hazy pink canvas over salmon-orange streetlights, dark shadows, and deep snow. I need that clear night sky. I need to be able to look up sometimes into an immensity of stars, like a seal sucking on air pockets under a stretch of endless ice. I need to gasp… Read more
November 29, 2019
The End of an Era? How A Humanist Might Measure Time
November 29, 2019 By M. L. Clark
7 Comments
Let’s begin with a meme. That’s all stories are, really: more elaborate units of information replicated via dissemination from person to person. In the last few weeks, we’ve started to see a range of memes specific to the end of the decade (which, for the purposes of this essay, we’re just going to accept as 2009-2019, though you’re darned right this has been a matter of contention). I myself have taken part in a few on Twitter, where I am… Read more
November 22, 2019
Fear of My Fury: When a Humanist Needs to Be Angry
November 22, 2019 By M. L. Clark
2 Comments
Let’s begin with a story. Yesterday I wrote about the national strike in Colombia, which turned out to be a splendidly peaceful protest in Medellín and only volatile in Bogotá and Cali (although even now, students in Bogotá are cleaning up the damage done by protestors yesterday). In all these cities and more, though, the night ended with something unexpected: a spontaneous cacerolazo, which is a form of protest I had never encountered before. All over the country, as protestors… Read more
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