One place where everything comes together

Author: Confluence

Engage

Inconvenient is Not a Reason Not to Start Impeachment Proceedings

Reading Time: 5 minutesI am not delusional. I know the Republicans control the Senate. It’s highly unlikely Trump will be removed from office. I also know that starting impeachment proceedings will disrupt the legislative process. However, there is nothing more important on our agenda than holding our elected officials, especially if that official is the President, accountable, making it clear that there are lines you cannot cross and continue to serve unchecked.

History must reflect that we did something in the face of the most corrupt, disruptive, and criminal administration in the history of our nation. It’s up to Congress to put that in the record books. Trying to impeach might have to be enough, and even if it fails, we cannot look ourselves in the mirror and not try.

Read More
Relate

You don’t have to wait to get your victim card punched to leave

Reading Time: 3 minutesHe hasn’t cheated. He gets angry more often than seems reasonable but never gets violent. He goes to work, comes home, watches sports and mows the lawn on Saturdays. The fact that he’s indifferent to her presence, drinking a little or a lot too much in private, demanding or totally checked out in the bedroom, and developing a pretty consistent porn hobby/addiction seem minor compared to what getting divorced might mean. 

She’s in limbo, waiting for her hall pass, an excuse good enough to justify leaving, but it’s not coming. This is her purgatory and she wants to fix it. She wants to fix him. She’d do anything to fix herself because she can’t remember the last time she was happy for more than a few hours. 

Read More
Relate

Podcast: A Conversation With Men About the Challenges of Masculinity – Part 1

Reading Time: 2 minutesToday, I’m sitting down with a room full of diverse men to talk about the challenges of masculinity. The reason I wanted to facilitate this discussion is to bring to light some of the points and perspectives on what it means to be a man in modern day, told by men. Everyone, regardless of how they present or identify, should have a vested interest in loosening the tight grip of patriarchal masculinity because it not only hurts women and LGBTQ people, but it hurts men, too.

Read More
Engage

The Root: Meet Sydney Wilson, the 14-Year-Old Who Just Became the Youngest Student to Attend Spelman College

Reading Time: 2 minutesIn addition to being named co-valedictorian while knocking out college-prep and AP classes, the honors graduate kept just as busy with extracurricular activities. She was the lead programmer for her school’s robotics team, served as president of the Rotary Club, ran track and her soccer team was nationally ranked.

However, humility is a key ingredient to her success. She was just as surprised and excited as anyone else when she found out where she’d be going to college, and her dad was the one to break the news.

Read More
Thrive

Burned out? Try this.

Reading Time: 6 minutesThe last time I got burned out, it was pretty bad.  Bad enough that I realized I could no longer function the way I had been for so long.  The perfection I had been seeking was making me sick. And my body had been telling me this for a long time since my mind was hell-bent on not listening.  I had to go back to basics–I spent many hours in bed, switching back and forth between games on my iPhone and Netflix. And to be honest, this was exactly the therapy I needed.  When I was physically weak, my expectations of myself were low. I could kind of just exist. At ground zero, I was ok with just being human. I wasn’t fighting anymore, and I felt a freedom that I hadn’t in a long time.  Some might call this a spiritual awakening. To me, it was a total release. I had to let go of everything because I was mainly useless. And what I had been avoiding, been so afraid of, the big failure, felt really good.

Read More