I call myself an “artist” because I think that art involves looking with an artist’s eye, and I do that. I don’t think that “art” requires hand-to-eye coordination; I think it involves looking, and looking, and looking again. Most of the artists that I know are painters. Of course if you’re going to paint, you […]
Art, Design, and Technique Read More »
I thought I was finished with having to criticize this after the furor over the 2006 movie and book The Secret died down, but the so-called “Law of Attraction” has been coming back into conversations lately, probably thanks in part to my association with a New Thought group. The LoA is very big in New
Another Harangue on the So-Called “Law of Attraction” Read More »
Reprinted from RFD: a country journal for queer folk, Fall 1995, #83. ©1995 KHLeFey. (This essay contains coarse language and sexual content.) Before I was political, I was “Political.” In my college days and a while beyond, I was a Religious Right evangelical, I was a card-carrying member of the Moral Majority (which was at
From “Political” to Political Read More »
A lot of people, when they start another career, leave previous careers behind. As an artist, I simply add to what I’m already doing. I knew when I was in the eighth grade that I wanted to be a writer. As I planned my life at Ohio State I was interested in music, but I
Bringing It All Along Read More »
I came out in 1988, and within two years I was working as a gay-rights and -advocacy professional. I was Christian-identified at the time, and religion was central to why it took me from age 14, when I knew that I knew that I was gay, until age 28 finally to come out. I had
The Foundation-Layers and the Builders Read More »
I spent a number of years as a Unitarian Universalist, and during that time I was exposed to the assertion that poet Edwin Markham was a Universalist. I now understand that, regardless of his church affiliation, he resonated deeply with Universalist principles, especially if you define the philosophy broadly as “inclusive” (a definition that I
Imperialist Religions as Invasive Species Read More »
I have a master’s degree in theology, the one offered at my theological school that I called “M.A. Lite.” I wasn’t a biblical scholar or a theologian; I specialized in worship arts and pastoral theology; that is, spiritual care-giving. But I have a history of immersion in Bible study because, among my many church
Dedicating My Life to Contradictions in the Bible Read More »
When we left Our Hero, he was reflecting on how Beesing et al had said, matter-of-factly, “[Enneagramic Eights] do not like to face the fact that in spite of their outward behavior of strength they are marshmallows inside.” I think often of the advice, “Love like you’ve never been hurt,” and I’ve often wondered over
HOW INTIMACY HAS SMASHED THROUGH MY DEFENSES, PART II: I AM SHIELDED IN MY ARMOR Read More »
Nearly half my life ago, circa 1990, I was first exposed to the Enneagram as a personality-typing tool that might give me insight into how I operate vis-à-vis members of my family of origin. The first book I read on the topic reflected Jesuit explorations of the tool for spiritual growth. I have studied, though
We have mashed up two old essays about the name that I changed to and have posted them here, but now I want to talk about the nuts and bolts and about the social implications of changing one’s name as I have viewed the process up close, once when I did it in 2000 and
On the Process of Changing My Name Read More »
