Good Clean Reads

I had this roommate once who was really into “hitting on girls.” We were recently out of college, and he hadn’t hit on girls much in college, but now we were young men living in Boston and he’d discovered that this was something he could do, hitting on girls. It became his project. He had a group of (male) friends who he would talk to about the best ways to hit on girls, and then they would go out...

“Contentment consists not in adding more fuel, but in taking away some fire. ” -Thomas FullerFor many years when my parents used to send me gifts, I tried to make light of the many ridiculous, worthless bargains that made their way to my door in the holiday season. It wasn’t the gift itself, but the reflection of how invisible I felt with them. Worse still, the holiday dinners where my...

“Do not let the fact that things are not made for you, that conditions are not as they should be, stop you. Go on anyway. Everything depends on those who go on anyway.” —Robert Henri

If ever there was a cliché to take to heart when it comes to our relationships, especially in these weeks before our annual holiday reunions, it is this age-old mandate to “try and try again.” 

“Our two greatest challenges, are figuring out better treatments for the 40,000 women who die of breast cancer every year, and at same time, figure out who, on the other end of the spectrum, is getting exposed to needless toxicity.” -Dr. Eric Winer

 

The human breast is a beautiful adaptation, which is singular in the animal world. While other mammals only have enlarged breasts during nursing,...

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” –Proverbs 4:23

 

It would have been my friend Janice’s 60^thbirthday this month. She was a multi-talented artist, a compassionate friend, a devoted mother and a godmother to my first daughter. This year marks the second anniversary of her death, which began with breast cancer. As the pink ribbons fly this month, we all have...

“He brought up the fact he likes to rape little boys…He’s telling me how he likes to use a knife on them.”  -Cpl Travis Schouten

What happens when the core sexual attraction of men to women is so tainted with terror that it disappears? It’s practically science fiction to imagine living in a culture that has so effectively terrorized the natural desire for sexual union between men and women, one...

“Perhaps if we weren’t still so consumed with guilt and shame about sex, neither watching nor performing in these films would carry the weight it does…”  -Candida Royalle

Pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry whose content consumes as much as 20% of internet traffic. As entertainment goes, its revenue beats out all forms of professional sports combined. It is a behemoth industry that...

“I hate having to ‘wind myself up’ to do it,” said a Flibanserin participant, “It makes me feel broken.”

Last night was a beautiful warm summer evening, the nearly full moon peeking in and out from behind the clouds and I found myself in the midst of a sing-along with thousands of other fans paying our last tribute to the iconic American satirist, Garrison Keillor. He was leading the crowd at...

“The hunger to belong is not merely a desire to be attached to something. It is rather sensing that great transformation and discovery become possible when belonging is sheltered and true.”  -John O’Donahue

The experience of belonging, of feeling at home, is at once surprising and yet also so full of ease that it seems like it has always been. It is surprising because feeling deeply a part of...