Back in the days when I worked at Planned Parenthood, I would joke that as a sex educator I was great at oral sex. In other words, I could talk about sex all day. I would sometimes tell teens that they should get better at oral sex, talking about it more and doing the deed…
After a recent awards ceremony, I approached a fellow recipient and extended my congratulations and my appreciation. The former was an acknowledgement for her outstanding performance in achieving excellence in her work. My appreciation, however, was more personal. It was my heartfelt thanks for how her institution — a library — was a part of…
“Free condoms! Take as many as you like! Free condoms here!” A few times a year I hawk free condoms at Union Station in Chicago and the Intermodal Station in Milwaukee. I figure young adults traveling Amtrak for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Spring Break should be prepared. After all, some reunions are best served with latex.…
This week I am writing about giving and generosity. As the calendar year closes and a new year approaches, I often find that I review my actions and thoughts of the past several months. What have I done? Where did that notion originate? Did it advance me as a human? How? Why? One mental tool…
You cannot know what it means to see your incredibly handsome future spouse emerge from a cloud of smoke on stage, wearing white tights, and sporting the pseudo military dress uniform of a prince. You’d have to be sitting there in the Marcus Center waiting through the party scene of Nutcracker, hoping beyond all hope…
My mom stood over the open dresser drawer, a small portfolio of envelopes in her left hand. With her right, she shuffled them, each with its flap gaping open. She wanted different answers to her question: “How will I make ends meet?” There was nothing in the envelop marked Medical. The Vacation one was always…
In the mid- to late-1960s, I did what many of my friends were doing. We grew our hair long, met over coffee, sang folk songs, went to rallies against the war in Vietnam, and marched for housing and racial justice. Sometime during that decade, I met the Berrigan brothers in an apartment near Marquette University.…
