On Caring What People Think of You

woman with many bagsI have a Google alert set up to fetch every new page on the Internet that contains my book title, Constructive Wallowing.

Usually the automated search will find me quoted in an article that cites the book, which is what I’d expect.

But sometimes it comes up with pages I never dreamed existed.

I recently got a hit on a nonsensical article that resembles something put together by a robot, or maybe a baboon. A robot would have better grammar. Read More

I Tattle On Myself (There I Go Again!)

woman with megaphone
“My last boyfriend dumped me.”

Allow me to set the scene for you…

There’s an hour-long “BodySculpt” class I like to take every week at my gym. It involves jumping around with weights to loud music. Since that’s pretty much the only real workout I’d otherwise get all week, I added personal training earlier this year. That also happens at the gym.

I give a semi-believable approximation of my best efforts in class, but I pull out all the stops and put on my big-girl shorts for personal training sessions. Read More

Why We’re Ashamed of Ourselves

A hundred thousand years ago or more, on a chilly April evening in Portland, Oregon (I know — it wasn’t called Portland or Oregon then) (or April), two cavemen sat together near a fire.

Gak made a pithy but insulting remark, and Trog got angry. So Trog killed Gak. Later Trog was sorry because there was nobody around to play cards with. Or sing sea chanties. Or whatever our ancestors did to pass the time in the Stone Age. Read More

No One Deserves Compassion More Than You Do

self-compassionThe photograph – a closeup of one person’s hand in another’s – is arresting.

The hand on the right, palm up, is that of a white person. The hand lying palm-down in the white hand is that of a very small, shockingly emaciated black person. Probably a starving child. Probably in Africa.

The caption reads, “You hate your life, while some people dream of having your life.”

The photo appeared on the Facebook page of Jeremy Lin, point guard for the New York Knicks, in April of this year. Read More