Advocacy

Abuse exists in many forms, from verbal to physical and everywhere in between. It occurs among boyfriends and girlfriends, husbands and wives, parents and children, adults and minors. The type that I recently witnessed was the type that I don’t feel gets much “high profile” attention, domestic violence against men.
 

The recent article in Vogue depicting women in Iraq and Afghanistan leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth of any female with wishes of being a mother. It's an unthinkable dilemma: being forced to predict your own future and decide whether you should forgo the armed forces in the chance that you could have a child and still be asked to leave. Although it is impossible to rate every situation, one fact is clear. Women, like it or not, are going to work HARDER for equality than men. Why?

Every time I hear “carpe diem,” or any message related to “seize the day,” I shudder at its utter cliché quality. My problem doesn’t lie in the message’s meaning, but in the fact that that it’s just too short. The phrase does not even demand explanation, and so people just schlep it around like nobody’s business. Without an explanation, I don’t feel any substance in the meaning of “carpe diem.” But despite my aversion to this well-worn cliché, I have created my own explanation of “carpe diem” that I actually like. In other words, personalizing a way to think about an old cliché has made the cliché meaningful and persuasive.