I drove manual for the first time today! It's pretty different to automatic. Dealing with the stickshift is hard. Gonna need more practice before I start driving on the road like that.

Just watched Junot Diaz's beginning part of keynote speech at Facing Race 2012. AMAZING. That man is awesome. Watch it here. The part about decolonial love was ( Read more... )

Kindnessby Naomi Shihab Nye ( Read more... )

Everyone has the ability to be an activist. You don't have to be involved in direct action (ie chaining oneself to fences, getting arrested, civil disobedience, etc) to be an activist. Do what you're good at - research, education, art, film, journalism, public speaking. There's a need for every kind of skill in activism.

Brené Brown: The power of vulnerability

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Completely and utterly agree with this, but man vulnerability is SOOOO hard to do sometimes. Have been working on it in various parts of my life, but still a long ways to go before achieving real authenticity and compassion towards myself and to others.

LZ Granderson: The myth of the gay agenda

A ( Read more... )

( In honor of Nora Ephron 1941-2012 )

So much held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day, an hour, a moment. We are utterly open with no one in the end-not mother and father, not wife or husband, not lover, not child, not friend. We open windows to each but we live alone in the house of the heart. Perhaps we must. Perhaps we could not bear to be so naked, for fear ( Read more... )

Professor, political scientist, author, Nation columnist, MSNBC host, and rising "nerdland" icon Melissa Harris-Perry addresses the members of the Class of 2012 and an international audience of their families and friends at Wellesley College's 134th Commencement Exercises on Friday, May 25, 2012. Some good words of advice for the women who will ( Read more... )

HBR blog article here on why prestige matters less and accomplishments more by Daniel Gulati. Excerpt from article:

Ironically, proudly flaunting your affiliations - company, university, or club - will only make you more of a commodity: another banker, another Ivy League graduate, another know-it-all scientist. Instead of just resume-gardening, ( Read more... )

I just finished reading Little Bee. ( Spoilers and thoughts on morality, life's tests, and life's unfairness )