The Brood: Ramona, Forever

“With red eyes, a swollen face, and a streaming nose, Ramona sat up and glared at her mother. “Love me!” Her voice was fierce with hurt. Shocked at her own words, she buried her face in the pillow. She had no tears left.”

I loved Ramona, but I lacked her courage. To be undone, but to still have the strength to demand love? Couldn’t be me.

The Brood: On Self-Help, Dreams, and Crying at the Gynocologist

I crush my latte cup in one hand. This is stupid. I don’t know what my dreams are. How does a person know what their dreams are after forty? Is having dreams even appropriate once you start using night cream and getting yearly mammograms?

Talking to Dust: Lost and Found

by Irim Sarwar You will search for me? Wherever I am? If there is a way?Wherever you are. Until the sun dies and the last wind blows through the worlds. Need you ask me? Even now?—Ysabel, Guy Gavriel Kay I looked away from my Kindle app, closed my iPad, and stared out at the sunsetContinue reading “Talking to Dust: Lost and Found”

Moving the Church from Pro-Slavery Apologetics to Anti-Slavery Condemnation

The seventh commandment forbids acts or enterprises that for any reason— selfish or ideological, commercial, or totalitarian— lead to the enslavement of human beings, to their being bought, sold and exchanged like merchandise, in disregard for their personal dignity. It is a sin against the dignity of persons and their fundamental rights to reduce them by violence to their productive value or to a source of profit.

The Brood: How to Be a Bad Catholic

Bad Catholics don’t pray the rosary, but have at least five stashed around their house (and one in their car). Bad Catholics have no idea when the Holy Days of Observation are. Bad Catholics will receive the Eucharist at your wedding or funeral, even if they already broke their fast by toasting you in the parking lot

The Brood: Reasons to Marvel

“Look C!,” I exclaimed, in that desperately upbeat tone we parents use when stuck somewhere boring with our children, “It’s um…the Incredible Hulk, and…uh..Iron Man, right? The red one? And that’s….well, that’s Scarlett Johansson…?”