Recent Updates
Bon Mot: We’ve Got Your Word Needs Covered
Dear Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop (EBWW) 2020:
Thank you for choosing Bon Mot as your personal moniker shopper. We appreciate the opportunity to help you choose the appellation that accentuates your positives.
We spent the weekend browsing the hangers in your word closets in #virtualErma and private facebook group. Using proprietary algorithms, we culled the following arty creations for further analysis:
Ermite
Ermas
Ermazon
Erma Nation
These are all superior to the generic Hey you, Yo gurlfriend and Ladies! Ladies! However, if there can be only one, let it be
When I Published an Essay On Talking Productively About Racism with a Friend, the Conversation Continued in the Comments
I recently had a dialogue with my friend Hector about racism which was so productive that I published an essay about it on Medium. He went from denying he was racist to being willing to accept that since we are all products of our culture and our culture is racist, therefore, both of us, being White, are unavoidably racist. (Cookies were also involved.)
The piece went modestly viral. I received a variety of thought provoking comments. They came from three types of readers: Black readers, reasonable White readers and White male trolls.
I Lost My Phone And Found an Unexpected Connection
If, as you read this story, it seems familiar, that’s because I posted it earlier in the year in a different form. I’ve reworked it and submitted to Chicken Soup for the Soul. We’ll see.
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When a friend called to see if I wanted to go for a walk, I was glad. It was late spring 2020. Even though it was early days into the COVID-19 pandemic, I felt like I’d been stuck in the house forever….
I Got Fed Up and Fired My Contractor. It Felt Terrific.
Eugene was intelligent, did good work and charged reasonable rates. He was also obnoxious (“Yeah, I’m a douchebag.”) and noisy, with a carrying voice. Worst of all, he never completed a job from start to finish. The man had a bad habit of
Six Reactions I Get When People Learn I'm a Psychiatrist
I’ve discovered Medium. Totally addicting. A reader’s paradise. And writer’s too. Check out the piece I just
My Favorite Therapy Magazine Has Excerpted Practice, Practice, Practice: This Psychiatrist's Life!
The Psychotherapy Networker is read by therapists all around the world. Oh my!
How I Challenged a Privileged White Male Friend's Racism
The Hardest Part? First, I Had to Listen to Him.
Given my introverted nature and aversion to crowds and conflict, I’ve been stumped for a way to help dismantle White supremacy. While waiting for a brilliant idea to burn through the atmosphere and crash into my head, I’ve been…
On Listening as Essential
Since Trump and the GOP swept the 2016 election, it’s been one unthinkable legal change after the other in the wrong direction, practically daily. With each thing, I’ve thought: It can’t get any worse. And then it does.
Pandemic Therapy: Video Chat 0, Phone 1
Just had a short article published by my favorite professional mag!
Book Review: Boomer on the Ledge by Molly Stevens
Slim, Funny and Good Looking. That would have been the lede of my Amazon review of Molly Steven’s Boomer on the Ledge but alas, the Overlord Purveyor of Everything has arbitrarily blocked, excuse me, is “not accepting” my feedback. I was distressed, as was my ever empathic doll (“not a child’s toy” designed and handmade by the author). But where there’s a blog, there’s a way.
May is National Mental Health Awareness Month
It’s National Mental Health Awareness month? How ironic. Two months in to this pandemic, I’m well aware—no, I’m hyper aware that most people’s mental health, including my own, is under siege. It’s impossible to ignore. There is just too much uncertainty. And too many feelings to deal with, from bowel-churning terror to metal-melting rage and everything in between. But now that I think about it, that’s proof I’m well and healthy, and so are you, if you’re swinging the same. How could it be any other way? These are simply psycho-logical responses to an increasingly psycho reality.