Swipe Right for Fictional Men

I recently sat around the kitchen table with my cousin, discussing which Austen man would be best for each of us. This is a game I can play for hours, as many times as necessary. We went through the merits of each man, and in doing so had to closely examine our own selves and our own hearts and desires. Mr. Darcy is rich and eventually thoughtful, but is he too serious? Edward Ferrars is sweet and attentive, but is he too quiet? What am I looking for?

Of course, they are all good men, and to end up with any of them would be a better match than many. The game, though, got me wondering how most people construct their idea of the partner they want. In an age of hook ups, clearly the men of Austen are not the model of attainment. Captain Wentworth, after all, feels so guilty that he even gave the impression of favoring Louisa Musgrove when he didn’t mean to. He would never have used her physically with no intentions.

Listen to Lead

What have you listened to today?

That seems like an easy question to answer: the morning radio show, the news, the car horns outside my window, my boss giving me directions for the day.

We spend much of the day listening, and yet, do we know how to truly listen? Lately the message I have been getting is, no, we don't. 

Our Frenemy Named Food

Farm Fresh or Grain Fed?

How many people do you know with a food allergy?

How many people do you know who have a digestion problem?

How many people do you know who, for some reason or other, just don't feel right after eating?

For me, this is a curiously high number. I can count on both hands (and then some) friends and family who fall into these categories. Peanut allergies, gluten intolerance, Chron's disease, FODMAP diets - sometimes I seem to be the only person I know who can eat freely. - Oh wait, I have to limit dairy because it irritates my skin and causes acne.

Food in many ways is becoming our enemy, and yet simultaneously it has become our obsession; both feelings stemming from the same root: a plea for recovery. Recovery of health and of a healthful way of cooking that understood the food we consumed and prepared it properly.

Life's a Book

As an English major at Muhlenberg College, I used "The Method" as a way to break down and understand literature. We were taught by our professors (who happened to write a book on it) to look for repetitions, strands, and contrasts in the text - to notice something, focus on it, and then notice it again in perhaps a different light. The goal of The Method is to train readers and writers to think analytically, a skill that was not limited to English Studies but applied across disciplines. Religion, Philosophy, Sociology, Biology - the key to my liberal arts education was knowing how to approach texts, think about them, and write about them.

When I graduated college, moved back home, and desperately searched for jobs and meaning in life, I found myself floundering, lost, and confused. For months I trolled job listing websites, and wrote endless lists on endless topics: where to move, what to do, dream jobs, realistic jobs, jobs that would suck in the mean time but lead to other jobs, how to land a rich husband and not need a job, etc. I was searching for the perfect thing - for my calling - which led me to really getting nowhere. "Excessive perfectionism metastasizes into chronic procrastination" says Lera Auerbach in Excess of Being, and in a way that was true.

For Acculturated: Make Captain Ahab American Again

Perhaps you have heard of the recent completion of Moby Dick as an audiobook/podcast by Plymouth University. Here is an article I wrote about it for Acculturated on the dichotomy between it as the great American novel and narrated and produced by the British.

America for President

With the presidential primary elections in full swing, I cannot help but reflect on what these campaigns, taglines and pleas for a new leader imply and reflect about our society and its needs. Particularly, I have been thinking about this in light of David Castro's book Genership 1.0: Beyond Leadership Toward Liberating the Creative Soul.

Genership "describes the practice in which humans collaborate with one another in generative processes - activities that foster creativity. Genership enables productivity; it brings into existence the desired materials, services, technologies, and energies that benefit the group as a whole."

Making Time for Tea

As I sip my tea this morning, I am faced with the message "say it straight, simple and with a smile" on the tag. My morning is often accompanied by thoughts like these or single words like "listen" and "enjoy." Though I often laugh it off, sometimes I cannot help but ponder the text as I sit. Why is my tea talking to me? Tea has always been thought to give messages through its leaves. Perhaps these little tags are meant to be an iteration of this tradition. Coffee does not talk. Rather, we grind it and hide it in a machine, absent from our finished product. Tea, on the other hand, we often let sit far beyond its advised amount of time. It dwells with us. We watch its leaves unfurl or the color change as the bag penetrates the water. And we are mesmerized. By giving us something to read, tea forces us to slow down and have a moment, if only for a moment.