David Teachout's Blog, page 13

Communication as Communal-Creation

Often in life there comes a time when simple interest wades into the realm of the romantic and encounters uncertainty as to what is meant by a comment or what intent was behind an action. There is no way to communicate in such a way as to remove all doubt or potential for error. We exist in others’ minds as internalized projections of

Meaning and Purpose Through Engaged Living

Apathy is mostly believed to reside solely in individual people, considered as some kind of disease to be dealt with. The prescription given takes the form of some immediate action. Get the person involved in an activity and the apathy will go away. The insidiousness of apathy is how easy it is to mistake mere movement with engagement. Movement is a linear process from

Religious Trauma Syndrome: How Some Organized Religion Leads to Mental Health Problems

Originally posted on ValerieTarico.com:
At age sixteen I began what would be a four year struggle with bulimia.  When the symptoms started, I turned in desperation to adults who knew more than I did about how to stop shameful behavior—my Bible study leader and a visiting youth minister.  “If you ask anything in faith, believing,” they said.  “It will…

2015 in review

Thanks to everyone who has read, commented and shared. The year has been one of changes and 2016 will see many of those bearing the fruit I’ve been working towards. The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was

Free Thought, Free Society

During this period of political theatre and argumentation derived from the most basic of emotional responses rather than from the heights of intellectual discourse, I’m reminded of just how scary free thinking is to those in power. Let us have debates, let us ponder the peculiarities of the human condition and delve into the hitherto mysteries of existence and the cosmos

Immortality Reflects the Value of the Present

I remember the day of my Christian salvation experience, that moment when, in the spirit of spatial irrationality I “invited Jesus into my heart.” There are countless others who have experienced a similar moment, reveled in its purifying quality and soberly accepted the reality of a world in which death was no longer the enemy but simply a momentary stop on

Get Real. The “War on Women” is not a War, It’s an Assault

Originally posted on ValerieTarico.com:
Sexual assault and forced pregnancy have always been instruments of war; but the “war on women” is not a war. It’s just assault, straight up.     The so-called ‘war on women’ is not a war; it’s a one-sided assault. It is conservative men, drunk on power, calling women sluts and then rolling up their sleeves and knocking…

Moving Relationally With Life Changes

To live is to change. Whether such change is directed from the inside-out through reflection, thoughtfulness and study, or from the outside-in through environmental shifts, life is a constantly moving beast we hold onto with smiles and gritted teeth. The difficulty with change is not found merely in the situation itself, though clearly this can be felt as small to

Removing the Negative from Negative Emotions

Our emotions are always with us, sometimes rising seemingly out of nowhere like a giant sea-serpent, at other times existing like a still ocean, always there but not causing any trouble. Unfortunately emotions often get a bad reputation, particularly when placed next to rationality, as if the two are diametrically opposed with emotions therefore being irrational. Directly leading from that

No Belief Stands Alone

There is a seemingly innate desire for people to move forward in life as if the ideas/beliefs they’re using are theirs alone. Cobbled together from personal experience or painstakingly found by trial and error, personal ideas are owned this way and considered as having emerged from their mind and/or voice out of the silence of the universe. The image of a