There was this sign I used to hold as a kid when we went to pro-life rallies, which typically consisted of long lines of families standing on the sidewalk. It said, like all the other signs said, “Stop Abortion Now.” Once, when I was nine, some guy jumped out of a van with a televisionContinue reading “Stop Abortion Now”
Category Archives: Culture
What is localization?
One of the most frequent questions I get when I’m meeting people in my own neck of the woods is, “So, what do you do here in town? Do you work for Coldwater Creek?” “No,” I say, although I am often in the presence of one or more people who do — as photographers, webContinue reading “What is localization?”
Gender hierarchy: For a new baby girl
Hierarchy can kill people. Take the case of Korean Air, which suffered a high rate of crashes until the airline was re-structured so that the crew was required to address each other informally, in English. What had happened was that the planes had quite literally crashed and burned because inferiors were too polite to doContinue reading “Gender hierarchy: For a new baby girl”
On Homeschooling
The other night, as I lounged on a couch more posh than comfortable, imbibing a flight of Syrah at the local wine bar, a friend — everyone is a friend in this town — leaned across the very large coffee table and told me she was homeschooling her kids. “You were homeschooled, right?” She askedContinue reading “On Homeschooling”
It might be a little bit complicated
My cousins Anna Sophia and Elizabeth Botkin have sent me their latest book for Christmas, It’s (not that) Complicated: How to Relate to Guys in a Healthy, Sane, and Biblical way. They inscribed it to “our dear Katie, with much love from your cousins.” Honestly, such things always choke me up a little, because IContinue reading “It might be a little bit complicated”
Sociopaths and authoritarian lifestyles
For a long time now, I’ve been reading personal stories of people who have been hurt by hierarchical relationships and the cultures that surround them. Now, hierarchy exists in many forms, and in many cultures, and it’s something that we actually reduce to points on a scale sometimes — we cite Geert Hofstede, for example,Continue reading “Sociopaths and authoritarian lifestyles”
Ho, ho, ho
Once, on my way back from buying groceries, covered from neck to ankle, I was called a whore by a group of post-adolescent men. In their culture, I suppose, I looked like I was asking for it. I wasn’t wearing a headscarf; I wasn’t veiled. I wore color. I was obviously foreign. Hence I mustContinue reading “Ho, ho, ho”
Celestial bodies
C.S. Lewis once remarked that when men are on the prowl and claim they “want a woman,” they actually do not want a woman at all. What they really want is the thing for which a woman is the appropriate appendage: “One does not keep the carton after one has smoked the cigarettes.” I wasContinue reading “Celestial bodies”
Vattnet svart som manen full
Scandinavia is possibly the one place in the world where tragedy really seems sublime. Maybe it’s the fjords, the marriage of ice and beauty, the dark winters and the chilly summer nights, aglow with lingering fire. Maybe it’s the tall, pale northerners themselves, fierce stock descended from Viking kings, with the reserve and hunger ofContinue reading “Vattnet svart som manen full”
On joue au couteau
I have a few songs by Coeur de pirate, a female French Canadian singer-songwriter, and recently, a few lines of “Corbeau” (Raven — an omnivorous bird considered an ill omen due to its propensity to feed on flesh, also regaled as an intelligent trickster) caught my ear. C’est dur d’être libre comme toi? Is thisContinue reading “On joue au couteau”
Botkin Creative 