The scope of a mother’s love is so much bigger than I ever knew — and it’s changed how I’ve loved.
At first come the logistics.
Dates on weekday nights, or carved out of weekend mornings or afternoons, when the child is with his or her dad.
In the case of a toddler, perhaps coming over after bedtime, but not spending the night. The chance of an earlier-than-expected wake-up, or perhaps a bad dream leading to the child running into Mom’s room and into her bed, needing hugs and solace, is too great. It’s not yet time for you to be seen in the house like that.
There is separation, in the beginning, between you — the date, the prospect, the…
The results of Proposition B won’t solve Austin’s homelessness problem. But it will tell us how we’ll deal with it and who we are.
On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say
Which we won’t understand
Don’t accept that what’s happening
Is just a case of others’ suffering
Or you’ll find that you’re joining in
The turning away
Proponents of Austin’s Proposition B (election day is May 1, early voting has already begun) argue that by making it a criminal offense “to sit, lie down, or camp in public areas,” the blight of Austin’s…
Men must get in the fight to end sexual abuse and violence against women.
It’s time for men to give back the night.
As if we could, as if the night is ours at all, much less ours to give. The night belongs to us all, equally, and should be shared and enjoyed by us all, equally, as we choose, safely.
And along with the night so too parks, downtown streets, subways, front yards, the paths from front doors to the street to take out garbage or retrieve mail, restaurants, bars and theaters, any space, all public space.
Like the night, men don’t own the public sphere. It is not ours to give or…
Fantasizing about sex is one thing. Recalling what makes it magical is another.
Like burning through your queue and recommendations on Netflix, uninterested in watching something you’ve seen before, I’m getting bored with my memories of sex.
Which is too bad, because minus a few I’d rather forget but can’t, I’m grateful for the video images on replay in my mind: picturing different women in different settings (and different positions) at different times of my life.
A lot of these memories remain hot to me.
Walking back together from a neighborhood party after ogling her for hours, standing, then more, behind her against a wall as soon as we locked the door.
The…
Since antisemitism is rooted in ignorance and bigotry, one specious claim is no more crazy than the one before it.
An elected official in the United States, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, shared a Facebook book post a few years ago (now deleted) claiming Jews were responsible for a deadly California wildlfire through use of a solar beam from outer space.
Far from being castigated, she instead was given a seat on the House Education and Labor Committee. As of this writing, she may or may not hold on to that assignment.
Greene has also espoused conspiracy theories about the Parkland…
It’s tempting, because it’s easier, to resolve a fight with calls for coming together. But a desire for healing is not enough.
To stay together over the long haul, couples must learn how to fight. How to argue, how to air grievances, how to repair and come back together.
The first step is to stop and listen to the other person — and have them explain their perspective. What just happened, in their eyes. Literally, what did they hear, what did they do, what did their partner say, what did their partner do.
Then the other person speaks.
And it’s…
Writers face a critical decision for the setting of new fiction. Will their stories take place before, after or during the pandemic?
I’m writing a short story about a man driving alone halfway away across the country; he’s moving to a new city, on his way to his wife and child who are waiting for him. He pulls off the highway to stop for gas, and decides to fill up at a station a bit further down the road, one that looks smaller and more quaint than your typical Shell or Exxon. He winds up making friends with the elderly station owner. They shake hands, even. Twice.
As I was re-reading and editing, I realized that this story, first started last year…
While we long for the past, we need to be creative, bold and empathetic about the future.
Christmas morning, 2019. I sit on my friend’s couch and stare out the window.
The fireplace is on, the tree is lit, Christmas music is playing, we’re on our second pot of coffee, and outside the sky is grey and tree limbs are bare.
No cars drive by, no one is out walking, the street is quiet, and outside all seems still, a serenity deeper than early Sunday mornings settles upon houses and lawns.
As someone relatively new to looking at Christmas as…
Trust your values, even if they aren’t traditionally masculine. Act in the common good. Take less, and with permission.
We can’t save the Earth if half the people on it don’t want to.
Or are unwilling or unable to because they are trapped in mindsets and driven by lifestyles that are unsustainable.
At the risk of a massive generalization, men are the ones standing in the way of a cleaner, healthier planet.
The change required is far deeper than men needing to recognize that climate change exists. Nor is it limited to men taking even the most basic steps in daily life that considers a world — most especially the natural world — beyond and around them.
This not…
First-time sex with someone new is exciting. But how will months of social isolation make this first time different?
The race is still on between the development of a Covid-19 vaccine and me having sex again.
It’s a race that started at pretty much the same time, but work on the vaccine has been going on around the clock, and there’s been much progress.
On my end? Twitter, writing, working, walks around the block and…yeah.
Part of pandemic existence is anxiety over the future, on every front.
And for those who entered and have endured the pandemic single and alone (even if, like me, you just barely made the cut) one of those anxieties is sex.
In a world…
Scott Gilman
Thinking and writing about my place in the world, and making myself (and the world) a little bit better.
