Sometimes I have a very hard time claiming Christianity. Not because I am embarrassed about following Jesus, but because I am embarrassed by the PR of Christians as a group. There are some of you I love to identify with--those of you out there fighting for good things in big and small ways. But then I see the name of Christ being commandeered for political or national prowess. Or I watch people proud to call themselves Christians publicly, but appear to have no concern for th

Many days sitting in my office, the political climate varies wildly from one hour to the next. One client will be staunchly in support of both the president and his policies (or what they know of them), but the next will be near treason, seriously considering a move to Europe. One will be using only over-the-counter oils to treat conditions that have been successfully treated with western medicine for a hundred years, while the next has had six different elective surgeries fo

Being a child is all about fitting in. To survive, you have to assimilate into the culture in which you were born. You have to learn the language and the social rules, meet the expectations, and jump through the hoops. It's just survival. It's not moral. No one can help the culture they're born into. You can't survive without it. Adolescence is about breaking out. You start learning which rules are breakable. You push the expectations and boundaries. You look outside of your

In first grade, I fell in love with a boy named Billy Brisco. He was sooooo cute. He rode the bus (I walked). He was a grade older than me. He had swoopy hair and light freckles. He smacked his gum. We would have made cute babies. The next year, I walked in the front door of my elementary school to find he'd changed districts and I just knew I'd never see him again. I was devastated. What now? All my heart and soul was set on marrying Billy Briscoe. Well, I had to change my m

I grew up middle class in a very white, culturally conservative neighborhood. I didn't (knowingly) know a single queer person until I was in high school. I had interacted with exactly one black person before middle school. Everyone I knew was at least nominally Christian. I knew to look down on, ever so slightly, people whose family constellations looked differently than mine (married hetero parents, two kids, white picket fence). The additionally honest truth is that I was s