This Saturday was a strange one for 2020 because – for two completely unrelated reasons – there was cause in my life for celebration. Even stranger, a whole lot of people were celebrating with me. Unbridled joy, the kind that brings people out into the streets or causes fans to pour onto the field, is rare to begin with. It’s true catharsis, an emotional celebration that allows us to forget ourselves for a moment, throw caution to the wind, and... Read more
Election Day is tomorrow. If you’re reading this in my newsletter, election day is today. I sincerely hope you have already voted or have a plan in place to go vote. I also sincerely hope that you’re voting for Joe Biden or a third-party candidate. But I know that plenty of people reading this, including people I love very much, are going to go out today and make a choice I deeply disagree with. This is hard. However, I have... Read more
I made a mistake this week: I stepped on the scale. After being stuck at home for the past six months, I’ve started to notice changes in my body. Along with these changes comes the negative body image and harmful self-talk that is very familiar to many people. I’ve been hearing more and more about it online. We’re struggling with our bodies, even as we’re doing our best to keep them safe. We care what we look like, when while... Read more
A few weeks ago, on National Coming Out Day, I decided to share some personal information about myself on Twitter. My husband has known for about a decade, my friends have known forever, and my parents have known for a couple years. I am not exclusively attracted to men. That makes me queer. Not a huge deal. Pretty standard stuff. For a long time, it wasn’t even something I saw fit to talk about because I am in a heterosexual... Read more
Unlike make Catholics, I have always loved going to Confession. I love the feeling I get afterward, one of lightness. It’s a clean slate feeling, a warm feeling, that I’ve come to associate with forgiveness. It’s the same feeling I have when I receive the Eucharist. For a long time, I associated this feeling with grace, the divine blessing bestowed upon us when we receive the sacraments. But there is a problem with this reading: what happens when you don’t feel it?... Read more
Carlo Acutis, an teenage gamer and computer programmer, was Beatified on Saturday, October 10th. This brings him one step away from Sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church, an honor that would make him both the youngest contemporary Saint and the first Millennial Saint. There are plenty of pressing issues I could be writing about today. The world is, frankly, a mess right now. But amidst all of the turmoil, there is hope. Carlo’s life reminds us of a simple, fundamental... Read more
Pope Francis released his latest Papal Encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, this weekend. The letter, which focuses on the creation of a more just, “Brotherly” society, is a challenging one to say the least. Pope Francis does not mince words on controversial topics such as the death penalty, war, migration, and the response to the COVID-19 crisis. His expectations for a just world are extremely high, as they should be. Is he, after all, not a politician. He is the pope. This... Read more
Tuesday’s presidential debate was pretty depressing. Two guys yelling over each other (three if you count the moderator), some cheap shots about people’s family, and a bunch of unverifiable numbers seemingly pulled from nowhere. Oh, and then there was this moment. If there’s any silver lining, it’s that for a brief moment Americans seemed united around a singular sentiment: this sucks. Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang summed it up pretty well when he tweeted, “I think Joe won, but it... Read more
People of Praise is a Christian Charismatic organization that has come under scrutiny lately. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett is a member. Last week, in an article about Judge Barrett, I wrote this about People of Praise :”I am really not a fan of People of Praise. It’s also not a cult. It’s not even a religion.” I stand by that statement. However, after talking a bit more with a close friend whose family are former members, I think it’s incumbent upon... Read more
Breonna Taylor’s life is irreplaceable. Infinitely worthy, infinitely valuable. The loss is incalculable, not only to her family and friends, but to all human beings. These are just words. I write them, and I believe them to be true. Or I believe that I believe them to be true. I hope that other people agree. But there is no objective measure that determines how much our lives matter. We determine that, through our actions and our choices, the way we view and... Read more
Femina Ferox
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