What You Wear to a Coup

By Jeannette Cooperman

It stands to reason that participants wanted to advertise, in costume, their political beliefs, because once you dive beneath support for Trump and blind faith that the election was stolen, the agendas vary dramatically.

Uncategorized | Dispatches

What Julius Caesar, Gertrude Stein, Donald Trump, Marilyn Monroe, Miss Manners, and Jesus Have in Common

By Jeannette Cooperman

Distancing the Self by addressing it in the second or third person is calming, neuropsychiatrists now tell us. It reduces “overwhelm,” a feeling so common these days that it has become a noun. Emotional distress drops quickly—within one second, in fact—when someone shifts to third person, seeing themselves as others might, or as they see others.

Uncategorized | Dispatches

A Less Than Civil War

By Jeannette Cooperman

Is there enough rage to launch a civil war? “Is there a way to avoid one?” counters the newly cynical voice inside my head. Because we cannot talk this through, operating as we are from entirely different assumptions about truth, facts, and the Constitution.

Uncategorized | Dispatches

Sick As a Dog

By Jeannette Cooperman

his is more than a story about how dogs bankrupt you and drive you crazy. It is a story about the damage that can be done to any of us when we do not get what we need.

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The Most Important and Most Neglected Virtue

By Jeannette Cooperman

As director of The Honesty Project, funded by the John Templeton Foundation, Dr. Christian Miller wants to rectify the omission. “Honesty was neglected in the realm of academic philosophy for much of the twentieth century,” he points out, “and there’s no clear answer why.” Maybe it scares us.

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Fate Can Be Cruel, Friends Crueller

By Jeannette Cooperman

Social media only exaggerates the power of a mean remark, spreading it far and wide, memorializing it forever. Which is why Mich Hancock, who built a company on her adroit use of social, is now pushing to “make the internet a kinder place.” She admits her plan sounds “a little fluffy”—but when she tells me what drove her, it is clear just how much weight has landed behind simple kindness.

Uncategorized | Dispatches

Allergic to the World

By Jeannette Cooperman

In some ways, the paranoia of someone with allergies is an accurate metaphor. The world is full of potential toxins, and anything could sicken us at any point. Some folks can hang on to the illusion of safety; others have bodies less easily fooled.

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The Monolith #MeToo

By Jeannette Cooperman

The column in the desert (we will call it a monolith as shorthand, though it was not stone) was made by human hands, with precision-milled sheets of stainless steel and rivets. More intriguing: It had stood there undiscovered for four years. The idea that anything can go undiscovered for four years cheers me.What is depressing is what came next.The copycats.

Uncategorized | Dispatches

The 2020 Dumpster Fire

By Jeannette Cooperman

Talk of post-traumatic stress disorder is a little too dramatic for those of us who just worked from home next to a dog and a cozy space heater. Delayed trauma is the terrain our frontline workers will have to navigate. But there is newer research on post-traumatic growth, Bono says, and any of us can grow from this crazy year. The trick is to stay aware and reflective, not just guzzle a vat of champagne and sashay, relieved, into 2021.

Uncategorized | Dispatches

Merry Christmas to All or Something Like It (I think)

By Gerald Early

The Modern Christmas in America is an account of the evolution of Christmas in the United States between 1880 and 1940; these were the years of the formation of Christmas as we celebrate it today.

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