June | 2016 | conTIMplating

I suppose it’s time. After many years of living with my secret, I am coming out with it. I know my friends and family will be shocked, and I’m sure my parents will be disappointed but I cannot hide it any longer. I just hope that those who truly love me will continue to accept me for who I am and not be too quick to judge, though I know that will not be the case for everyone. So here it is: I am Identity Fluid.

I wasn’t always sure growing up what was ‘wrong’ with me. It wasn’t until I saw in the news the likes of Elizabeth Warren, the potential vice presidential candidate who identifies herself as Native American when she isn’t really, or the likes of Rachel Dolezal, the Spokane NAACP chapter director who identifies herself as Black when she isn’t really, that it hit me. It doesn’t matter who I am; all that matters is how I identify myself. President Obama has decreed that this is reason enough to let me use any bathroom I choose. And it turns out that for me, my self-identity changes depending on my mood or circumstances. Thus, I am Identity Fluid. It’s a thing.

Take the example of Continue reading →

Prolific congratulatory offerings are in order for the conTIMplating household! My extraordinarily talented and formerly red-headed daughter, Thing 2, graduated from high school last week! Thank you. Thank you very much. That’s one reason I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve been busier than Josh Earnest after Obama goes off teleprompter. This is because as the end of the senior year approaches, everything leading up to graduation is The Last One: The Last choir concert; The Last theater performance; The Last prom; The Last suspension; etc. And being the good parent I am I felt I should be there for The Last One. I can’t just sit around and blog or go out and play golf and miss The Last One like it was The Second-to-Last One. Well, maybe a quick nine. I can be a little late.

Unlike Thing 1’s graduation, which was highly celebratory in nature, going through the process of graduating my concluding offspring made me a bit nostalgic for the tight-rolled pants and leather ties of my own commencement. I suppose it was due to the compatible similarities of the two events, detached only by the passage of 30 years: both were in early June in un-air-conditioned arenas where friends and family sweat it out on bleacher seating; both of us were the youngest in our family to graduate leaving the distinct probability of parental empty nesting; and both were as a member of a quartet of inseparable friends taking part in one last official and emotional milestone together. (If I knew what an emoji was, I would insert it here.) Continue reading →