Love & Wisdom
Clarity: Becoming a Beginner
Change is inevitable. Let’s embrace it.
So, I shut up for the next minute or maybe even two. I stopped listening to what was being said and let my eyes wander around the studio before I began staring distantly at a spot on the wall above the window that looked out into the newsroom. I was like a pinball machine that had tilted.
How to Survive and Thrive During the Holidays
Firm boundaries aren’t just for cats
My cat kept jumping onto the bed as I made it. He’d dive into the folds, scratching my comforter. I set him on the floor and grabbed a nearby laundry basket, tipped it upside down, and trapped him underneath. He found this amusing. I finished the bed, then went on to make a few more. I forgot about him.
A Painful Lesson Learned
Regardless of circumstances, when hurt happens open your heart to injured parties
I grew up in a world, or ocean, of systemic white privilege. It’s sometimes hard to see, and sometimes understand, what I haven’t experienced. I was taught to see racism or misogyny or homophobia only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group.
Debate, Devour, Divide
How weaponized language spreads disinformation
Now, those on the left are using it to attack one another. In these online spaces, people tend to panic at the idea of being part of the problem. As a result, they try to position themselves as champions of a very perfect model of social justice that quickly shuts down anyone who doesn’t fit. People are trying to position themselves as the most moral individual with the best ideas and perfect grasp of language.
Taking Shots From a Screen
Social media has become a hotbed of misinformation. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Porismata Borah, a social media expert at Washington State University, delves into media psychology. In a conversation with Seattle magazine, Borah, along with Mike Caulfield and Joseph Barnes, prominent Seattle social media experts, discusses the challenges in modern communication and the potential for meaningful conversations on online platforms.
Papa and His Pronouns
A parent works to adjust to his young daughter’s preferences
I love my daughter. Although I’m not sure she’s my daughter. I now call her my child. My little monkey. Sparky. Love of my life. My kiddo. But never, ever, my little girl, even though she attends Seattle Girls School. Because when Valen turned 11 last year, she told her mother and I that she…
You’re Not Doing it Wrong
Navigating the soiled nest of family life
This morning, I found myself running late as I tried to get my daughter to the bus, but I wasn’t alone in my rush. There was a parade of cars driven by grumpy, frazzled parents eager to position themselves in front of the bus before the next stop. No one wants to miss the bus….
Capturing Hope
A picture is worth more than a thousand words
A year ago, 23-year-old Anika wouldn’t have recognized the person she is today, emerging from a scattered and difficult past with deep gratitude for the support she’s received. “My journey has been broken, lots of broken roads, and very narrow,” says Anika, who asked that her last name not be used. “But I’m on a…
Publisher’s Note: The Lost Art of Civility
How to bring back respectful discourse
Can a city be too “woke”? That’s a provocative question. If we root the term to its original definition from early 1900s to 1950s African American culture, “woke” is an adjective generally defined as “being alert to racial prejudice and discrimination.” Beginning about 10 years ago, it came to also encompass a broader awareness of…
Where Innovation Meets Education
Seattle Girls School empowers girls to change the world
An innovative experiment at a small school in Seattle’s Central District may hold the key to the future of education. The Seattle Girls School serves students that identify as female or gender nonconforming. Rather than abiding by a traditional grading system for every assignment, students at the private middle school get letter grades only at…
The Grind Of A Grudge
MOVING PAST ANGER AND LETTING GO OF TOXIC ENERGY
I was watching a Seahawks practice when the man I’d shunned for three years offered me an apology. “I’m sorry,” said Dave Mahler. You might know him as Softy. He hosts the afternoon sports-talk show at KJR 93.3 FM. “I was wrong, and I shouldn’t have said what I did.” He then offered me his…
Live, Laugh, Bomb
A ROOKIE TRIES STAND-UP COMEDY, WITH MIXED RESULTS
As with many Tinder dates, things didn’t go quite as I expected. For example, I didn’t intend to have multiple guys I’d matched with in the same place, at the same time. Especially when that place was a comedy open mic that was going to be my first and possibly only attempt at stand-up. After…
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