Choosing to Follow – I wrote this in response to a thread where a woman was complaining that the men in her area all expected her to kowtow because she was female…a couple of women who believe in submitting to their husbands jumped in, and the rest can be picked up from context, I think.
Courage – I wrote this back in 1998. It is, hands down, the best thing I’ve ever written.
Foreigners – Written in 1997, as a retrospective to four months in Budapest in ’89.
The Potential Myth – Teens and kids with obvious gifts are frequently told they should “live up to their potential”, which causes all sorts of self-esteem and guilt problems. In this post to a gifted-children mailing list, I wrote about my experiences with that particular guilt trip, and why I feel now that it is far more important to follow your passion than to do what you’re gifted at. (It’s nice, of course, if they coincide, but passion is more important to happiness than talent.)
Living with Bipolar Disorder -I have Type II ultra-rapid-cycling bipolar disorder, which is treated (very effectively) with medication. After I wrote this blog post on thankfulness, a social worker wrote me and asked if I would be willing to share my story with others he was treating for bipolar disorder. I wrote it for him, in hopes that it would help someone else who was going through hell.
I thought long and hard before deciding to post this on my website. There is still a lot of stigma associated with mental illness, and it’s conceivable that (for example) a potential employer might read it and decide not to hire me. However, I also feel that unless some of us with bipolar disorder are willing to stand up and own the disease, the stigma will never go away. So I am doing my small part by “coming out” and telling my story.
This is probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever written, but it’s worth reading.
Shaping Life – A moment of clarity surrounding how our decisions sway the course of our lives.
The Safety Trap – Musings on fear and risk-taking.
Why I Ride – The introduction to my book on AIDS Lifecycle, and an account of how I became involved with the ride.
On Being An American – I attended the naturalization ceremony of a close friend – a big event, as he’d been waiting 17 years to get his American citizenship. He says he came to the U.S. because it is a far better place for an “out” gay man than his home country, and that got me thinking about what it means to be an American.
