In the Primitive Garden

I think I’m in the primitive garden. That’s the name of this garden, a weird fairy hollow situated near the border of the weird fairy artist ranch where I’m staying in Tucson. I am looking north. I can tell because the sun is at my back. In front of me there is a small trapezoidal […]

Redux: A Vocabulary for the Almost-Lost

My dog died this week. It was entirely without warning; she was fine Saturday and on Sunday she collapsed, and then she was gone. I am shattered. I am in a state of constant saudade, a Portuguese word meaning the feeling of longing for something or someone you love that has been lost forever. I […]

Mary Poppins Is An Anarchist In Strict-Nanny Disguise

“If this was a democracy, you would still lose,” is something my husband has told our 3-year-old after she objects to our decisions. I can feel the frustration build in her as though it were tightening my own chest. But in the world of Mary Poppins, she doesn’t have to take that kind of adult […]

This is your brain on the word “actually”

If you’re familiar with the internet, you know there’s a problem with the word “actually”. After initially gaining recognition in 2012 as “the worst word on the planet”, it quickly rose to an unpopularity stratospheric enough to justify think pieces in The New Republic and The Atlantic. Its ill repute transcends the English language: last year, […]

Destruction Can Be An Act of Creation

This is a picture of a rift in our world. It was taken June 21 at Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano, in a rip called Fissure 8. What a remarkably utilitarian name for a tear in the planet. I was captivated by images like these all summer, and I forgot about them when my attention turned to […]

Neurowars

Last week, someone posted a notice for a new meetup on Twitter. A bit of news. A few of us have decided to do a Queer Neurodiversiry meet-up for coffee in San Francisco next Saturday, October 6th. Please join us and share with interested friends. Info in the FB event link. 🌈☕️ FB Event Link: […]