I will admit that the phrases "defund the police" and/or "abolish the police" make me uncomfortable. Which is to say, they make my privilege uncomfortable. I take for granted that the police will protect me. That they won't shoot my children. That they will come when I call them. I believed that...until I listened to…
Note: I wrote this essay at the end of May shortly after George Floyd was murdered. Since then, I have immersed myself in as much anti-racist thinking as I can. I'm raising two young children so it is challenging to find time to think and write and learn. But really, it is my children that…
Continue reading ➞ Empathy in Action – The start of a Conversation
There was an article in the NY Times recently about how llamas have extra antibodies and, in one study, those antibodies have proven to be successful at defeating COVID-19. Apparently llamas are superheros in the world of antibodies. They have two different types of antibodies (where humans only have one). They have a regular antibody…
What are you passionate about? It is a loaded question. The first implication being that passion is missing. It implies disapproval. That the passion is misguided or unacceptable. It says, maybe you think it's passion, but it's not. It says, you won't go anywhere in life without passion. It says, you don't seem to love…
"Beware. Ignorance protects itself. Ignorance promotes suspicion. Suspicion engenders fear. Fear quails, irrational and blind. Or fear looms, defiant and closed. Blind, closed, suspicious, afraid. Ignorance protects itself. And protected, ignorance grows." -Octavia E. Butler, from Parable of Talents There is an unwillingness to recognize ignorance. An unwillingness to admit it. To accept it. It…
I've been reluctant to begin this series of essays on religion. Partly because I'm unsure where to start, and partly because I'm unsure how it will end. More the latter, than the former. If this series ends with me saying "I'm an atheist" what will that mean to the people that I love, but who…
Hundreds of billions of stars in hundreds of billions of galaxies... In all of that, here we are. Here, we became us. From the most unlikely odds, our planet became the earth we know. From the most unlikely odds, humans were born from that planet. It occurs to me on occasion just how special we…
Note: I began writing this shortly after the Parkland shooting. I've read through it many times now and I know there is so much more I could say. For the sake of brevity, though, I will not go further than I have here. Also, full disclosure, my initial draft was pretty snarky. I've done my…
"Love is a many splendid thing..." It is true that love is splendid. It is a magical gift of evolution that we humans get to feel love. That we can recognize and choose love is, I would argue, our greatest asset. It has helped our species survive these many millennia. Recently I listened to a…
Story writer. Book blogger. Tea lover.
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Charly Slipp 