Janet Coburn

Words matter. What we call people matters. Making distinctions among words matters.

This year’s COVID crisis has caused us to focus on who really are the essential workers in our society.

Trouble – sometimes serious trouble – ensues when people don’t agree on what symbols mean.

I read all those posts about what women over a certain age shouldn’t do—wear message t-shirts or leopard prints, for example—and promptly ignore them.

Anger – anyone’s anger – frightened me, even if it was not directed at me. I spent a lot of time cringing, until it became an automatic reaction.

However a person avoids taking responsibility for hurting you, the fact is that they feel no need to apologize, because in their mind, they have done nothing wrong, nothing to apologize for. You can wait forever for that apology. It will never come.

You’ll remember how the washer works. You’ll spend time with friends and family. You won’t wear sweatpants. You’ll have resting happy face.

Bullying behavior starts with an attitude, a sentiment that there are winners and losers in life and the winners have the right (or even the duty) to lord it over the losers.

There are some battles you shouldn’t fight because you have no hope of winning them.

Quality time—extended periods of togetherness—can be extra special to someone with bipolar disorder who feels lonely, isolated, or unlovable.

It’s easy to say that one should cut toxic people from one’s life, but it’s often a very hard thing to do.

Long-distance relationships never succeed, especially those that start with such a brief acquaintance. But no one had considered the stubbornness of either him or me.