Whenever I read about a super model's experience with body shaming over the course of her career, my initial reaction is sympathetic. I am sure that such incidents are terrible and can have a negative impact on a person's self esteem. I absolutely believe that when your multi-million dollar career depends on what the scale…
Pedestals, Perfection, and Disappointment
I read an article the other day that reported the late Jean Vanier, founder of L'Arche International communities for the cognitively disabled, has been accused by five adult women of sexual misconduct in that he had what they describe as coercive sexual relationships. Prior to these revelations, he was considered a solid candidate for sainthood.…
Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, and Bigotry
Oh, the outrage! Jennifer Lopez and Shakira have asses! Son of a bitch! What am I going to tell my teenagers - they don't know about asses! Not only that, they had the audacity to shake their asses! Jennifer Lopez climbed a stripper pole? How do I explain that to my kids? These women were…
When did it Become Acceptable?
When did it become acceptable in America for a man to mistreat a woman? When did it become acceptable in America for an American government official to take a woman in a back room and scream profanities at her? How does it come to pass that an American Secretary of State, a position that traditionally…
What the Neighbors Think
I suspect there are more of us out there than we might expect who grew up with parents who had one level or another of preoccupation with what the neighbors might think. There are any number of reasons that happens. None of them are legitimate. Whatever the real reason for neighborly preoccupation was - narcissism,…
What Has Happened to Us?
Somewhere along the way, our society has gone to hell in a handbasket. We drink and drug ourselves into oblivion on a regular basis, a horrifying number of us have been sexually assaulted either as children or adults - sometimes both. Corporations are people, kids are bringing guns to school on an almost daily basis,…
Trust Yourself
People may say all kinds of terrible things about you - even family. People may run you down, treat you to a seeming endless list of what they perceive to be your flaws and short comings, even to the point where you start to believe them. If this happens to you, ask yourself one question.…
Perspective
I have been discouraged for some time now that we have become unwilling to forgive the minor indiscretions of youth that, at the time, weren't seen as terribly problematic (such as the wearing of blackface in a college skirt or at a party). At the same time, we are unwilling to address serious transgressions that…
Too much?
Is it too much to ask that for just a moment we might be honest about fundamentalism? No matter the tradition, fundamentalism is heresy and an aberration that has nothing to do with the tradition from which it deviated and devolved. In short, fundamentalist Islam is not Islam. Fundamentalist Buddhism is not Buddhist, fundamentalist Judaism…
Why?
Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the horror of things that we never get around to asking why they happen. I don't say that as a criticism at all, I think it's just part of how our mind works. We hear of something so out of the ordinary, or at least out of what…
Craig Bergland 