I am so tired. I’m tired of a lot of things: propaganda, politics in general, mean people, people with good intentions who can’t translate them to action, physical pain that makes it difficult to do certain things, allergies, people holding the sins of others over their heads. I am also physically tired. I lose a lot of sleep for a number of different reasons: grading papers of my high school students, planning their lessons, painting my nails, doing my hair, phone conversations, searching for inspiration on Instagram, sick family members, sick friends. Last night I slept only from 4:30 to 9:30 a.m. because I was having an important conversation with a friend. I had to go have my foot and
(Image extracted from Grace Wilson's illustration ) I read this Broadly article today. While it’s very long, it covers an interesting range of topics related to physical interaction and the psychology of touch. It implies the immorality of placing prisoners in solitary confinement. It cites statistics on animals and humans who show better health when they receive “enough” touch. It praises the Free Hugs movement and vaguely criticizes paying for cuddles. Its boldest claim is one I wholeheartedly agree with. "Physical contact is a requirement of being human," says Kupers. "There's something healing about it. It [touch] is not just correlated with being human—it is being human." Accordingly t
I know seventeen is a rough age. I know you spend all day everyday listening to adults tell you what you should and shouldn’t do. I know that you feel like you are capable of making all of your own decisions, and to an extent you’re right. You are craving freedom, autonomy. You want to do whatever feels right to you in any given moment. You have morals and a brain and you want to put them to the test without our interference. I just hope you remember that every adult who gives you advice was seventeen once too. All of us women were once girls who liked boys and thought we knew enough about them to strike out on our own with them. When you tell people a lot of information, most of them
