à la carte spirit by ilona fried
Memory
The Catch-22 of Being Female
“Why were you so angry?” the man asked. “I don’t understand your level of anger.” He had been a middle-aged blonde and tanned resident of Belmont, MA, an upper middle class town. My College Pro Painters crew had worked on his sprawling older home in the summer of 1987, between my sophomore and junior years … Continue reading
Shambhala, Too
It’s been revealed that the Shambhala Buddhist “Emperor”, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, has no clothes. An in depth investigative report, spearheaded by a former member of the Shambhala community months before the #MeToo movement made headlines, has turned up searing and horrifying stories of abuse of power, including sexualized violence, over a period of decades. Sadly, I am not … Continue reading
#MeToo: Thoughts on Vulnerability, Victimhood, Secrets and Privacy
During my freshman orientation at Bryn Mawr College, the resident advisor invited us into her dorm room to sit on the floor in a circle and get know each other. To break the ice and build connection, she wanted each of us to share something we were either bad at or nervous about (so I … Continue reading
Unexpected Reflections for 9/11
I was at work when planes flew into the World Trade Center in New York and another into the Pentagon. Someone plugged in a small television and we watched the unspeakable unfold. Even the office manager, a normally stoic man with a love of beer, began to cry. He dismissed us for the day. I … Continue reading
Yevgeny Yevtushenko, 1933-2017
Originally posted on Approaching Learning:
From The Atlantic – Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Don’t worry if you have no answer ready To the last question. Hold out, meditate, listen. Explore. Explore. Travel the world over. Count happiness connatural to the mind More than truth is, and yet No happiness to exist without it. Walk with a cold pride…
à la carte spirit by ilona fried 
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