Personal Development
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Crown and Rod: Accoutrement of Authority
Author’s Note This post continues the Tools series—but at this point, pretending that tools are neutral feels willfully naïve. Authority is a tool. So is hierarchy. So is the language… Read more.
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Ruler of Normalcy: The Baseline of Acceptance
Author’s Note This article continues our exploration of humanity’s tools—only this time, we’re not reaching for hammers, code, or a mirror. We’re reaching for the ruler. Not the literal kind,… Read more.
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Bindings at the Threshold: Anchors of Choice
Author’s Note This essay continues my exploration of humanity’s tools, which began with Children of Hephaestus. That piece explored the external instruments we craft—hammers, networks, algorithms—and the way they amplify… Read more.
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Smoke and Mirrors: Implements of Control
The first fracture is always gentle enough to ignore. Your partner “forgets” your birthday but bristles when you mention it. A back‑handed joke lands, hard, then ricochets into “Lighten up—it was… Read more.
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Children of Hephaestus
Author’s Note With most of my posts, we’ve been unearthing the roots of the world we inhabit—tracing the systems beneath society, seeing not just what they are but why they were placed, and what… Read more.
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The Shape of Shame
Most people—if they pause long enough—can remember someone who simply stopped showing up. Sometimes it was the kid who asked too many questions in Sunday school, or the boy who… Read more.
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The Fire and the Fold
Author’s Note I, personally, am not religious. But I try—intentionally—to live a deeply moral and ethical life, having come to the conclusion long ago that any just god would understand… Read more.
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The Hammer and the Strike
There’s an old story, likely apocryphal, about a train engine that wouldn’t start. The owner had already burned through several mechanics, each of whom poked, prodded, and replaced parts for… Read more.
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A Curriculum of Compliance
Author’s Note — To the Real Teachers Who May Read This: I know what follows may feel unfair. It doesn’t speak to the handful of students whose lives were genuinely… Read more.
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Performance Is Not Belonging
There is no intimacy in performance—only applause or silence. Many people would rather hear applause from others than endure the quiet of self-reflection. We live in an age where acceptance… Read more.
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They Renamed the Fire, but Still We Burned
When I first encountered George Orwell’s 1984, I was too young to fully appreciate what I was reading. I picked it up for the accelerated reader points, not the politics—some required… Read more.
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The Calendar Isn’t a Moral Compass
“It’s 20XX—how are we still doing this?”~Too many people, too often. I remember the first time I heard someone utter these words in a tone of bewildered frustration, like the… Read more.
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The Myth of the Middle Ground
“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”— Hannah Arendt The Comfort of Compromise In 1938,… Read more.
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Welded Smiles and Hidden Truths
There’s an old movie I used to love. It told the story of a forgotten man locked in a dungeon, his identity stolen, his face hidden from the world by… Read more.
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Ghosts in the Machine
You didn’t agree to this. Not really. You clicked “Accept,” sure, but who doesn’t? The app blinked to life in your palm, promising connection. Now it watches, always. Listening. Learning.… Read more.
