There are two basic states of being: default happy and default unhappy. This is the insight that leaped out at me me almost as soon as I started reading Chade-Meng Tan last week. Some people are happy all the time, except when something bad happens to them. Other people are unhappy always, unless something good…
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Two Pieces of Candy
I must have been six or seven, not yet old enough to be fully aware of the vague sense of financial worry caused by growing up on a farm in the 1980s. But plenty old enough to know better. I stole a couple pieces of candy from the open Brach’s bin at the IGA. I…
Read MoreEasy/Hard
Why is it so easy to see or hear one detail and leap to the worst possible conclusion about a person’s motivations? Why is it so easy to give our past hurts permission to control our present reactions, and block out reason when it urges moderation? Why is it so easy to skip over grief…
Read MoreShe Makes It Look Easy
By the time we arrived at the wedding reception, the room was overflowing with people we didn’t know. Ordinarily Christian and I are both highly functional introverts, able to fake it so long as we’re together and/or we know our role in a given situation. We often bicker at home about who has to call…
Read MoreHow Can You Be Emotionally Healthy If You Empty Yourself?
On any given day, this blog is my go-to place to wrestle with questions that trouble me and offer what little insight I have. But today I would like to turn that around. I had another post planned, but listening to the daily readings podcast this morning, I found myself challenged almost right out of the…
Read MoreIn Which A Conversation With A Homeless Man Shapes My Future Self
The light at the top of the exit ramp was red when I pulled up to it. There was a man there. Grizzled. Curly beard. I recognized him. I’ve given him protein bars before. I pulled one out of the box between the seats and rolled down my window. “Here you go,” I said. “Oh,…
Read MorePictures From The Big Day
A young lady’s big day in the Basi household begins with dancing with your little brother… …continues with joining the choir for one of your favorite songs (“Love Has Come, by Matt Maher”)… …peaks with receiving your first Communion (officially this time)… …forces you to tolerate having lots and lots of pictures taken…. …
Read MoreMaybe I Really Am Living With An Angel (A Mercy on a Monday Post)
It was last December when I read the post that kicked off this exploration of mercy. This post, specifically, in which Rory Cooney suggests that we have a bad habit of substituting confession for actual mercy. I thought, “Wait…there’s more to mercy than confession?” Then I thought, “Maybe I’d better dig into this a little…
Read MoreMercy (or the lack of it) on the road to the White House
My title today probably evokes an instant reaction. Everyone is well aware of the nosedive in common courtesy—a baseline standard for treating others with mercy—shown by the candidates in this presidential election. And lest you think I’m aiming this only at one side of the Great Political Divide, let me say that I have only watched…
Read MoreMountains, Molehills, Contraception, and The Zika Virus
When I heard the radio headline yesterday afternoon, I groaned. Because I knew I was going to have to blog about the pope’s comments, and as a proponent of natural family planning, it would be hard to convince anyone that I’m approaching the topic objectively. But there under the awning of the Gerbes fuel station,…
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Kathleen M. Basi 