Last week CBS This Morning hosted a lexicographer from the Merriam-Webster dictionary, talking about the malleability of language and the ongoing task of incorporating new words into the dictionary. Although prescriptive grammarians (unlike descriptive ones) would have you believe that our language and its rules are static, nothing could be further from the truth. (Sure, I … Continue reading On Vapors, and Vapers
Tag: Mental Health
Sea Legs & Side Effects
Yesterday morning I walked through a rainstorm to the gym we just joined---a Planet Fitness decorated in garish purple-and-mustard, and plastered with heartening signs proclaiming it a "No-Judgement Zone." I owned a StairMaster in my twenties, but my forties-self clearly needs some shaping-up because that thing was kicking my butt after six minutes. So I thought I'd try … Continue reading Sea Legs & Side Effects
What Paper Plates are For
There's a TV ad for an antidepressant that features a paper plate on a popsicle-stick handle with a smiley face sketched on it... Various people are holding it up in front of their faces, which (behind the paper-plate-smiles) are unhappy, disengaged, or entirely expressionless. That ad speaks not only to the experience of Depression, but also to … Continue reading What Paper Plates are For
Taking Out the Trash
This week I volunteered to help out a church acquaintance with some cleaning and reorganizing of her house. She's a single mom with numerous health problems and two active young boys, and she babysits an infant who's now mobile enough to require baby-proofing of the house---and she was finding the project overwhelming. I won't lie: I found the project … Continue reading Taking Out the Trash
How to Save Hundreds on Prescriptions (I don’t care if I sound like a bad TV ad… everyone should know about this!)
We're kind of conditioned to believe that something "too good" can't actually be true... So when I happen on something TRUE that's awesome... Well, I just have to share it! I know I'm not alone in relying on some prescriptions that are critical to my health (mental and otherwise), and I know I'm not alone … Continue reading How to Save Hundreds on Prescriptions (I don’t care if I sound like a bad TV ad… everyone should know about this!)
2017: A Year for Reading Rihla
Boise Idaho is bearing up under record-breaking conditions this week. We have more snow on the ground than EVER. (Well, at least the "ever" that dates from 1875 when someone started measuring.) We have wind-chill warnings for -25F and more snow on the way, possibly to be followed next week by rain, of all things, … Continue reading 2017: A Year for Reading Rihla
When You Wait till You’re Married (List#3)
In company with dinosaurs and dodos, we have to list the wait-till-you're-married man as extinct, do we not? I honestly believed so, at least as it applies to this country and culture... but I'm here to report that the subspecies is not defunct. I met Jon last year. And I married him this February. And then we started our life of … Continue reading When You Wait till You’re Married (List#3)
Kana's Chronicles 