From the time I first studied psychology as an undergraduate, I recall four things vividly. Likely the last to actually happen is the one that stands out most. I was ready to declare my psychology major at the end of my sophomore year when a professor told me in class that I could not be…
Last week after I was in class for well over an hour, I suggested we take a 10 minute break. I dashed to the restroom and, when I got to the urinal, I discovered that my fly was open. A minute later, as I was washing my hands, I debated if I were going to…
For at least 10 years I have included a class on relationships in the university course I teach in the Psychology of LGBT People. These lessons have changed a great deal during those 20+ semesters, but have become increasingly personal in the past few. I have noticed that students are holding more and more popular…
Keep a circular breath flowing, Gary. Notice the freshest possible air coming in through your nose and, unobstructed, out through your mouth. Breathing in, breathing out. Breathing in, breathing out. There is only the air — freshest and sweetest possible. Only the air… Then I was gone. When I came back to the mat on…
One reason I like to know objectives for meetings, purposes of products and services, or values of a group engaging in some endeavor is so I can assess for myself how we are doing. Are we headed toward the solution to a problem? Will this gizmo make the work easier or my life better? What’s…
In my week of writing about criticism, I took what for some might have seemed like a detour yesterday to write about voting and the disenfranchisement of my late husband by a system that disabled him. Let me explain. Paul had Type IV Multiple Sclerosis, a particularly pernicious form of the disease that was progressive…
My late husband, Paul Mandracchia, loved to vote and nothing could dissuade him from doing so. Those who knew Paul were aware that the last several years of his life it took him forever to get dressed. Often there were three of us in on that project. Usually Jose or Anneke or Leslie joined me…
During an interview on Fresh Air, Jacob Bernstein, the son of Nora Ephron, said when asked about his mother’s sharp criticism, “she had a razor in her mouth.” He was referring to her toughness as an editor, seemingly unafraid to urge writers – even her son – to cut, cut, cut. In the context of…
Usually I have very little trouble attending to a single topic or issue about which to write for five days each week. In the more than 175 posts I have written in this blog, I may have had two days when I approached the computer thinking, “I have nothing about which to write.” This week…
Yesterday I thrice commented on things I learned in two college courses in linguistics before I blurted to my friend and colleague Mischelle, “They may have been the most useful classes I ever took.” Together with Latin and English, these linguistics courses taught me ways of understanding the world through the use of language. My…
Creating Community for Everyone 