ihatediamonds

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The Five Stages of Being Dumped

dump_truckMost of us have been dumped. Sometimes it’s a long time coming and you’re not all that surprised. Sometimes it comes out of the blue (for you) and you’re stunned. Every so often it comes shortly after you were seriously considering doing the dumping, but decided against it, mentally recommitted yourself, only to have all that work be for naught.

No matter how it comes, these are the five stages of being dumped. Duration varies based on how fucked up your dumping was/your level of crazy. Continue reading →

Adventures in Nature: The River

640px-Aberglaslyn_xWHR_MMB_03Summer of 2008: Bellevue, WA

I was home after spending the last nine months traveling around the United States and Canada and working in an office full of my fellow 20-something travelers, booking next year’s adventures. We were a restless bunch. Constantly inventing games and contests to alleviate the boredom of spending eight hours in neighboring cubicles. Continue reading →

QOTD: Name Your Prince

PrinceI love Prince.

I have mostly terrible taste in music but my long-standing, top volume devotion to Prince is my one musical saving grace. His Royal Badness has rescued me in many a social situation, after I mistakenly think a party can handle the raw power of “Teenage Dream” and when I am trying to sleep at night after spending day 324 in a row listening to a playlist entitled “Call Me Maybe 4 EVA.” Prince is an incredibly prolific artist and it’s been pointed out there is a Prince song (or entire album) that has gotten a Crasstalker through every fragment of life, so trying to pick just one favorite song really isn’t enough space to capture the full range of wonderful that is Prince the artist. Continue reading →

Black History Month, Bard Week: Phillis Wheatley

‘Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there’s a God, that there’s a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
“Their colour is a diabolic die.”
Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,
May be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train.

Continue reading →

Black History Month: Henrietta Lacks

I’m currently reading The Emperor of All Maladies. It’s a great book on the history of cancer and cancer treatments. Reading it is like sitting in the observation desk of a surgical theater while a new and especially tricky procedure is being conducted. You are witnessing one of the scariest moments of someone’s life and the most triumphant moment in another’s. Yet your attention is not on the sedated person, the one who will pay with their life should things not go as planned. Your attention is on the person in the scrubs, with the knife. Continue reading →

Black History Month: Nancy Hicks Maynard

Nancy Hicks Maynard (1946-2008) was the first black woman reporter for the New York Times, to cover hard news. Together with her husband Robert Maynard they were the first and only black publishers of a daily metropolitan newspaper, the Oakland Tribune. Along with seven other journalists, they also founded the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, currently based in Oakland.

Maynard, born and raised in Harlem, paid her dues at the New York Post before she was hired by the Times at the age of 21. While not the first black woman reporter at the Times (that honor goes to society reporter Bernadette Carey), she did up the ante by covering some of the most important news  stories of the day. Continue reading →

Black History Month: Irene Morgan Kirkaldy

In 1944, alone and recovering from a miscarriage, Irene Morgan boarded a Greyhound bus in Gloucester, VA. She found a seat in the black section of the bus and settled in for the long drive home to Baltimore.

The packed bus stopped in Middlesex County, VA, where a white couple boarded. The driver confronted Morgan and demanded that she vacate her seat. Morgan refused. The bus driver drove to the local sheriff’s station and the sheriff boarded the bus with a warrant for Morgan’s arrest. Morgan tore up the warrant and when the sheriff went to grab her she kicked him and fought every step of the way.

“He put his hand on me to arrest me, so I took my foot and kicked him,” she recalled in You Don’t Have to Ride Jim Crow!, a 1995 public television documentary. “He was blue and purple and turned all colors. I started to bite him, but he looked dirty, so I couldn’t bite him. So all I could do was claw and tear his clothes.” Continue reading →

Black History Month, Athlete Week: Flying v. Walking

Twentieth century sports history is peppered with, “the first black person to…” stories. From Satchel Paige, to Frederick Douglas “Fritz” Polllard, to Jack Johnson, and of course all of the ladies mentioned this week. If you venture beyond black history, you’ll find dozens of more firsts and more waiting to happen.

These stories are heartwarming. They give hope to the kids training and dreaming on run down equipment. They are a source of optimism for the adults who continue to fight their own daily struggles. But these stories should also inspire reflection. Continue reading →