Category: Essays and Musings

  • The Price Of Gas!

    Oh! It is time to run in circles and flap our hands! Gas is going up! Food will cost more! Who could ever have predicted this??? Here is one of the places where the division between structural analysis and the personal impact becomes glaring. It has become apparent to me over the last few years…

  • But is it Technology?

    My daughter and I were working on her social studies project last night about technologies that are important to her. She had to have 10 pictures to paste onto a piece of paper, and to be able to talk about why she picked them. She quite quickly looked around our house and recognized that pretty…

  • On scripts, social performance, and knowing your place in the world

    “We are all born naked. The rest is drag.” Rupaul* We have these dual drives within, for Society and Self. Acceptance and Agency. We hear the messages: Strive… but not too high, or you will become vain. Succeed… within these boundaries. Find your tribe, and then stick with them. They know the ropes. But we…

  • Today is My 100th Post

    It’s hard not to get all meta with this blogging thing. I had another post written, and scheduled, but it was kind of a throwaway. Filling in the days sort of thing. Then I realized. Wow! 100 posts. Maybe I actually DO this thing, then. As you might suspect from my title, I’m a bit…

  • The Inevitable Path

    I promised an article on Repetitive Stress today, but I’m having technical difficulties. You’ll understand if I manage to resolve them, or I’ll explain if I don’t. Like many of you, I have spent the weeks since Christmas cleaning all the things.(1) This included giving away many of the things. Yesterday, I gave away the…

  • The Illusion of Choicelessness

    I first wrote this title down several months ago, but that was how far that particular post went. This week, however, I had a moment on the cushion when I realized that I really could do everything completely differently. I am not trapped by promises and contracts, I choose to uphold them. I could: Sell…

  • Breast Feeding, Formula and Risk Analysis

    The choice between formula and starvation is a no-brainer. I had an inadequate milk supply. I did. Yes, I tried that. I tried that, too. With my first baby, I saw, oh… something like 17 doctors, lactation consultants, and midwives, including Dr. Jack Newman (the guru of Canadian breastfeeding). There were herbs, and pumps, and…

  • Why Dilettante?

    Dilettante: (according to Merriam Webster): an admirer or lover of the arts a person having a superficial interest in an art or a branch of knowledge When I first drafted this post, I began with a list of the projects and activities that I have worked on, played with, or investigated since July, but it…

  • The Dance of Balance

    Welcome to the October Carnival of Natural Parenting: Staying Centered, Finding Balance This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have shared how they stay centered and find balance. Please read to the end to find a list…

  • Never underestimate the power of a good bumper sticker

    Somewhere in southern Ontario, there is a black jeep whose bumper proudly proclaims, “Not all those who wander are lost.” I know this because I was behind it one day. I turned to my friend beside me and asked, “What do you think that means?” She said something witty about not following them. It happened…

  • In defense of Theory

    This is a very long article (word count 1800)  that I wrote several years ago to explain why I spend so much time immersed in theory, even though I am deeply concerned with practical implications. The examples are specific to education at the university level, but the idea of the connection between theory and practice…

  • Somebody’s Poisoned the Water Hole

    Do you remember BPA? The chemical that was in the baby bottles from which my children drank from the time they were a few weeks/months old? It was in the bottles that attached to my breast pump (and almost certainly the pump itself). I was recently reading “Slow Death by Rubber Duck“, and I came…