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On courage, parenting, and Sergio de la Pava’s ‘Lost Empress.’
It takes real courage to do something hard day after day with nobody watching, nobody cheering.
a meaningful life, accounting, brain damage, bravery, concussion, courage, David Foster Wallace, Dorothy Dinnerstein, emotional pallet, fatherhood, Fatherhood in Pieces, finite bravery, football, good parenting, heroism, how we act when no one is watching, interminable tasks, Lost Empress, meaning, Michael Chabon, parenting, Pops, raising children, raising kids, Sergio De La Pava, Sisyphus, sports, suicide, The Mermaid and the Minotaur, The Pale King, writing
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On gene duplication and oppression, a reprise.
Maybe horrific oppression helped get from our past to the present, but it’s certainly not the only way forward.
aristocracy, bacterial evolution, citrate metabolism, cultural evolution, DNA duplication, DNA polymerase, DNA replication, evolution, evolution in a laboratory, evolution of culture, global wealth tax, guaranteed basic income, history, history of violence, landed gentry, mutation, natural selection, oppression, Richard Lenski, taxation, taxes, theft, wealth
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On love and physics.
Even when love doesn’t change the world, it changes us.
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On cooperation in gaming.
Play’s the most fun when you play together.
board games, chess, competitive board games, cooperative board games, cooperative board games for children, cooperative games for children, cooperative games for kids, diversity, game design, game reviews, games, geek parenting, ghost stories, Go, growth mindset, Hive, Mark Bekoff, Pandemic, parenting, play, raising cooperative children, raising cooperative kids, teaching children to play board games, The Emotional Lives of Animals, The Mind, Vanguard of War
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On drinking.
“The only thing I’m scared of is that I’m gonna drink again and my daughter won’t let me see my grandkid.”
addiction, alcohol, alcoholism, apology, beer, booze, Dave Gibson Makes His Way Down, Dave Johnson, domestic violence, drinking, drugs, fear, forgiveness, jail poetry, penitence, poem, poems, poetry, poetry in jail, prison poetry, Raymond Carver, repentence, teaching poetry, teaching poetry in jail, Where Water Comes Together with Other Water, Woolworth’s 1954
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On ‘The Theft of Fire.’
Stories are powerful things. A world in which workers are brought into a country as farmhands is very different from one in which barbaric kidnappers torture their victims to extract labor. A world in which death panels ration healthcare is different from one in which taxpayers preferentially fund effective medical care. You’ll feel better about…
AI, angry gods, comparative mythology, death panels, description of slavery, discovery of fire, discovery of the atom bomb, essay about fire myths, essay about the origin of fire, evolution of fire use, Fire, fire myths, fire myths in human evolution, gratitude practice, history textbooks, human evolution, ideology, invention of fire, invention of the atom bomb, Jury S. Judge, medical rationing, modern mythology, mythology, mythology of the atom bomb, myths of the atom bomb, Palaver, poem, poetry, Robert Oppenheimer, Rosalind Franklin, stealing fire from the gods, storytelling, the discovery of fire, The Testimony of J. Robert Oppenheimer, The Theft of Fire, thermodynamics, ways we describe the world
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On games, tinkering, and gratitude.
By expecting games — and the wider world around you — to have flaws, you can save yourself some heartbreak. Then it’s time to fix ’em.
board game design, board games, Boss Monster, Boss Monster review, card games, depression, dungeon building game, dungeon crawler, expecting flaws in the world, game design, game review, games, house rule, marcowargamer, Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project, optimism, Pages to Prisoners, perserverance, puzzle games, strategy, tinkering, tinkering with board games
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On gateway drugs.
Being lied to is a gateway to rebellion.
A Romance, addiction, alcohol, alcoholism, altered consciousness, bars, Bruce Weigl, childhood, children, dangerous drugs, depression, dizziness, dizzy, drug abuse, drug research, drug use, drugs, ecstasy, gateway drugs, incarceration, insomnia, jail, jail poetry, laws, lying, marijuana, mass incarceration, MDMA, parenting, poem, poetry, pot, PTSD, sleep disorder, sleep disturbance, spinning, teaching in jail, veterans, War on Drugs, which drugs are most dangerous, which drugs cause most harm
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On fruit, welcome, and undergarments.
Come in, all are welcome.
conquest, dragon fruit, dragonfruit, durian, evolution of meaning, evolution of symbolism, fruit, hospitality, hotels, King Charles II, mangosteen, pineapple, pineapple boxers, pineapple door knockers, pineapple flags, pineapple hotel signs, pineapple signs, pineapple symbolism, pineapple undergarments, pineapple underpants, pineapple underwear, symbolic drift, welcome, why do pineapples mean welcome
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On explaining religion to my child, part one.
Humans have told so many stories about sky ghosts, but don’t worry, kiddoe … ghosts are pretend!
Abrahamic faiths, atheism, atheist, Buddha, Buddhism, children, Christ, Christmas, cobra, death, deities, Eden, Enkidu, explaining Christmas to atheist children, explaining Christmas to atheist kids, explaining Christmas to kids, explaining god to kids, explaining holidays to children, explaining religion to kids, expulsion from Eden, fatherhood, forgiving god, Genesis, ghost stories, ghosts, ghosts are pretend, Gilgamesh, good without god, holidays, immortality, In a Dark Dark Room, jealous gods, Jesus, John-Michael Bloomquist, Loki, Magic Penny, Malvina Reynolds, Midgard Serpent, misogyny in world religions, Moana, Mucalinda, mythology, naga, nap, naptime, Old Testament, parenting, penance, Quran, Ragnarok, religion, religions, sacrifice, secular children, secular kids, secular parenting, sharing, Siddhartha, sky ghosts, snake, snake myths, snake stories, snakes in mythology, snakes in religion, spirituality, stories about death, stories about god, stories about snakes, teaching children about religion, teaching kids about religion, telling children about god, telling kids about god, The Prodigal’s Lament, Thor, to live forever, toddlers, trickster gods, world mythology, Yahweh
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Frank Brown Cloud 