Just Tell Me What You Want!
We may think that we’re making all the decisions in our lives based on our own desires, but that may not be the case. Society gives us so many messages about what we should do and should want and we may not understand that our decisions as adults are based on those societal messages.
From Loneliness To a Sense of Community
If you are experiencing loneliness, you’re not unusual. The pandemic lockdowns and the consequent surge of working remotely led many people to feel isolated, especially those living alone. The customary ways that people connected with others were changed.
“Meet Me Where I Am”: About Grief
People are often impatient for someone to finish grieving after the death of a loved one. “How long is my sister going to grieve?” they may ask, eager for the person to get over the death and get back to normal. How long does grief take?
“How long is the person going to be dead?” David Kessler, one of the experts featured in “Meet Me Where I Am” asks. “Because if they’re going to be dead for a long time, you’re going to grieve a long time.” This quote is one of many powerful ones in Grant Garry’s thoughtful documentary film about grief, “Meet Me Where I Am.”
Another expert, Ron Marasco, says, “You think that their death is the worst thing that happens. Then they stay dead.” Making sense of that is a Herculean feat.
Holiday Gatherings: Fun, or Frustration?
With the holiday season ahead, you may be making plans, drawing up a guest list, planning your flights, wrapping up work projects, testing new recipes for your festive meal, all of the things to ensure a fun and relaxing gathering for yourself, family, and friends.
Some of us have close and loving relationships with our families. Some have strained family relationships and lots of tension. Others have walked away from abusive families and have warm relationships with friends that they consider family by choice.
Parenting Lessons from the Barbie Movie
We’ve got another Barbie movie post: this one about the relationship between the teenage daughter and her mom, who works at Mattel. The daughter is trying to establish herself as her own person, and in doing so, pushes her mom away. The mom misses the closeness of their relationship when the daughter was younger and the mom was a more central figure in the daughter’s life.
Couples Lessons from the Barbie Movie
Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” is a fun romp of a summer movie that also tackles the impossibility of society’s contradictory demands of women, the futility of defining oneself through one’s relationship with another person, what it is when one gender holds most of the power in society, difficulties between a teenage daughter and her mom, and what it means to embrace the imperfections of an authentic human experience—among many other themes.