If You’re Not Changing It, You’re Choosing It
Let me tell you about the time I lived with a raccoon. Not officially, of course. I didn’t sign a lease with one or agree to split…
Social and Self-Help
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Building Brand Communities: How Organizations Succeed by Creating Belonging – By Carrie Melissa Jones, Charles H. Vogl, and Caroline Miller
Our modern marketplaces are flooded with flashy ads and empty slogans, and the idea of a “brand community” can sometimes sound like marketing speak disguised as something…
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The Elevation of Solidarity Above Charity
Charity has its place. When someone’s in real trouble; when the rent’s past due, or the fridge is empty, or there’s a medical bill hanging over their…
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Radical Neighboring: Or, How I Accidentally Joined a Cult of Kindness
Let me just start by saying, I am not what you would call a “neighborly” person. My general policy toward the people living on either side of…
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The Painting of My Life (Now with Extra Beige)
I once had a therapist (I’ll call him Stuart, because that was his name) who told me that life is like a painting. “It’s your canvas,” he…
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The Art Beyond the Instrument
…this is one of my photos, by the way There persists, in every era, a quiet but stubborn prejudice: the belief that the value of a creation…
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Running From a Lion That Isn’t There
At some point in the last ten years, I realized I no longer know how to relax. I don’t mean in the cute, candlelit, bubble-bath sense. I…
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Toward a Status Economy
We tend to think of economies in terms of money. Monetary systems, markets, prices; these are the structures we’re taught to see. But what if we’ve been…
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Perfectly Bored to Death
Let me just say right off the bat: perfection sounds lovely in theory. Like a beach vacation where you never get sunburned and the waiter always knows…
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A Little Help Here?
Let’s talk about co-dependence, shall we? That word usually shows up in therapy sessions, pop psychology books with vaguely floral covers, or during Thanksgiving dinner right after…