Packet of Wildflower Seeds

Last fall, I was searching for books to buy my niece for Christmas. I wanted a title that celebrates strong female figures. While reading a description for one of the prospects, I noticed an odd book listed under "customers also viewed." I clicked on it. I don't remember the title, but the the gist of the book is that modern feminism is bad for women and terrible for society. The opinions expressed by the author reminded me of a controversy a couple years ago; celebrities were criticized based on whether or not they would identify as feminists. Many of the individuals who declined to identify as feminists said that "feminism" is a dirty or divisive word. Since I sometimes like to imagine what I would say if I were a celebrity being interviewed on the red carpet, I tried to fashion my own response. I had an initial opinion, but I had to strengthen it with facts and reason. First, I had to figure out what "feminism" really means. Given that "fem...

The other day I told my daughter that my anatomy class dissected sheep brains. She asked a lot of follow-up questions. Our conversation meandered through topics such as scalpels and surgery before ending on C-sections. She asked to see a picture of a C section scar. Then she asked to see a picture of stitches. Then she asked to see a picture of the incision before stitches. I considered whether the images could be too graphic for her, but she was genuinely interested. Instead of a picture of the incision, I showed her a picture of a freshly born baby with his umbilical cord still attached. Blood, babies, the body - they are all just parts of our human nature, after all. This philosophy has led me to adopt another potentially controversial practice: I don't care if my kids see me naked. For awhile, it was a little out of my control. When we remodeled our bathroom, we didn't have a door. The kids could waltz in whenever they wanted. It was hard to tell them they were crossing a...