For some men, anger is the emotion they are most familiar with. Ask one of these men how he feels and you are likely to get a puzzled expression, unless, of course, he is angry, in which case he is often quite clear about how he feels. Some families have adapted strategies over the years to either avoid or manage men's unacknowledged anger.
Constructed from antique paper and the thorns of wild roses, Owen's sculptures suggest fortresses, reliquaries, and dreamlike towers. Their tapering forms strain upward, yet their surfaces are creased, stitched, and scarred, holding a quiet gravity. In Owen's hands, stability feels precarious, and foundations seem half-remembered, the scarred surfaces of her forms suggesting both skin and structure. Hidden recesses suggest stories of touch, damage, and sacred encounter.
Rising from my seat at the front table, a familiar acid burn crawls up my throat. It's that failure lump I've carried for the past 16 months. Today is somber. My late wife Jane's celebration of life. She died just over a month ago after a 15‑month battle with leukemia. More than 250 friends and family members fill the room, waiting for me to deliver her eulogy.
I felt like I was asking her if she wanted to make out. The Big Lebowski-the 1998 Coen-brothers movie about bowling, pot, and mistaken identity-is one of my favorites, and I was nervous about introducing it to her. I like to use Lebowski quotes as a way to assert myself while, like Jeff Bridges's character, "the Dude," not taking things too seriously.
There is something graceful, practically effortless about how the band's contrasting elements-Elizabeth Stokes's beautifully delicate vocals, Jonathan Pearce's fuzzy, catchy riffs, Tristan Deck's driving drums, and all four members' shimmering harmonies-come together to create power pop gems that simultaneously feel modern and like they'd be topping the college rock radio charts in 1989. The level of musicianship is so high, so consistent, that four albums in, you could almost take the quality of a Beths album for granted.
When we perform in a way that is inauthentic, we communicate information to others that does not accurately reflect how we actually feel. For example, we may say "work is good" and "I had a wonderful weekend with my family" when we actually mean "work is overwhelming" and "I felt really sad this weekend."
Every person experiences loss during their lifetime. Sometimes, these are devastating disappointments or disillusionments. If one can bounce back without cynicism or loss of trust, it fosters deeper connections.
"Something I had only shared with Whitney, my therapist, and my family was that when I was a little boy, I was raped. And when I was finally honest with that emotion and that memory, everything made sense, the validation I needed."
