Left: A new concept with legs. Right: A brain with bug eyes and gaping mouth waving a sword in each hand. Speech bubble: “Have no fear. I will kill it with swords!” If you’ve ever scribbled a rough denial in the margin of a book that challenged your core beliefs, you’ve experienced some of the […]
On Truth
Truthiness, post-fact, and BS have all become jargon terms in political communication. I’m not sure any of us expected that from the new millennium seventeen years ago. But then we lived through presidential perjury (Clinton), yellowcake uranium (Powell), and an entire decade of popular distrust for the state. We haven’t recovered. That brings me to […]
Taking a holiday from mythology
National holidays can be a great break from the daily routine for those who get to hit pause on the workday clock. They’re also another time when society pumps energy and attention into the old, old myths that the status quo tells itself so it can sleep well at night. We don’t have to comply. […]
The truth is enough.
Matthew 5:33-37, part of the gospels’ summary of Jesus’s teachings, challenges the way we handle the truth. And it’s a necessary challenge. Truth, embellishments, hedges, and avoidances all make business and interpersonal relationships that much more complicated. We’ve learned to distrust marketers and their advertising claims, and “Just give it to me straight” is a […]
All Our Euphemisms Are Like Filthy Rags
Note: This article features Anansi, the Akan spider-man. And because I love you, it includes no images of actual spiders. —KM A lot of people I know skipped church last weekend. A lot of Black people I know skipped church last weekend. A sprinkling of days after a young White racist slaughtered nine praying Black people in the oldest African Methodist […]
