Post at Provoketive.com

I was born near the end of second-wave feminism. As a result, as a young-adult, I had all kinds of powerful female role models and I was very complacent about the rights that I had as a woman.

This was a mistake.

Today at Provoketive, I apologize to the feminists that went before me for not being more vigilant. Head on over to read my piece.

Post at Provoketive.com

You may have seen the video of the dad who shoots his daughter's laptop to teach her a lesson. Today over at Provoketive, I'm talking about why I don't like it and why I think we need to examine our parenting in this digital age.

I'd love it if you'd head over and share your thoughts!

Post at Provoketive.com

Today I'm posting at Provoketive as part of their synchroblog on hope.

Hope is a difficult subject for me, as I've written about in the past. Here's a snippet of what I'm sharing today.

When I was young, hope was easy. I hoped for a trip to the near-by ice cream stand on a hot summer afternoon. I hoped for the perfect new toy for my birthday. I hoped that I would be able to fake my way through my piano lesson without my teacher recognizing just how little I had practiced. 

But as I aged, my relationship with hope grew rather uneasy. Despite my youthful abandon with hope, the adult me has frequently been afraid to hope. 

I’m not afraid to share my opinion, even if it’s controversial. I’m not afraid to ask difficult questions, even if it means that I may not find a satisfactory answer. I’m not even afraid of spiders, and those things have eight legs and like a million eyes! 

But hope? That one throws me.

I'd love it if you'd click over and read the rest of my post and check out some of the others.

Post at ChurchLeaders.com and Provoketive.com

Thanks all for your kind retweets and Facebook shares of my piece yesterday. You all are pretty awesome. But only in an "I like you" way, not in any kind of idolatrous way. Because that would be silly.

Anyway, my post was picked up by Jonathan Brink over at Provoketive and by the good people at ChurchLeaders.com. I'm delighted that my tiny, little nod to Zaphod Beeblebrox is getting some play out there (I assume that's the draw).

If you're stopping by here from either of those sites, welcome! You can check out some of my favorite posts on the sidebar on the right, and you can click on the button below to subscribe to my blog. I'd love for you to take the journey with us!

Post at Provoketive.com

I'm back at Provoketive today, this time with a featured article!

You might be surprised to find out that I oppose gay marriage.

Recent comments by presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann have stirred up the discussion about gay marriage once again. While speaking to a group of high school students, she said that gay people could get married, just not to someone who was the same sex. “They (same-sex couples) can marry a man if they’re a woman. Or they can marry a woman if they’re a man.” 

Later she went on to add that “there are no special rights for people based upon your sex practices. There’s no special rights based upon what you do in your sex life.” 

And there it is; the reason why I oppose gay marriage.

Head on over to Provoketive to read the rest of my post and to share your thoughts.

Post at Provoketive.com

I'm writing today over at Provoketive. With Thanksgiving just behind us, I am naturally thinking about food.

Thanksgiving is now behind us, a day that for many is filled with one delicious food after another. Turkey. Mashed potatoes. Corn casserole. Jello molds. Pies, pies, and more pies. We fill our plates, we eat, we dive back in for more. We wear our stretchy pants and leave the belts in the closet for another day. 

Eating turkey and mashed potatoes isn't something that is unique to Thanksgiving. Particularly here in America, we can have a large meal nearly any day of the year. So despite the fact that we tend to focus on the food, there must be more to this holiday than simply an opportunity to eat a large meal.

Head on over to Provoketive to read the rest!

Post at Provoketive.com

For the record, this is gonna' be one of "those" weeks. You know, where I post more elsewhere than here. Sorry.

My friend and publisher Jonathan Brink has started a new online magazine called Provoketive. Jonathan has a really fantastic way of gathering together top notch writers giving them a place to shine and he's doing that yet again with this endeavor. I'm honored to be among the writers there and to share my first piece. Where I write about Beavis & Butt-head.

Heh. Heh heh heh. Heh heh. 

The smartest show about the dumbest people is back. 

Last Thursday night I cozied up with a wine cooler, some nachos and turned on MTV for the first time in years to watch the return of Mike Judge's Beavis and Butt-head. 

One of my favorite moments in the show was just two minutes in, when the screen turned to flame and Beavis began chanting "fire!" Those familiar with Beavis and Butt-head will remember that shortly after the show premiered back in 1993, there was an accident involving fire that was blamed on the show, resulting in the banishment of that phrase from further episodes. The glorification of destructive behavior on a satirical show for adults was held responsible for the actions of a five-year old child. This was around the same time of the infamous McDonald's coffee lawsuit, and we began to hear a new buzz word emerge. 

Personal responsibility.

Head on over to Provoketive to read the rest of the article!