Something scary is happening to boys today. From kindergarten to college, American boys are, on average, less resilient and less ambitious than they were a mere twenty years ago. The gender gap in college attendance and graduation rates has widened dramatically. While Emily is working hard at school and getting A’s, her brother Justin is goofing off. He’s more concerned about getting to the next level in his videogame than about finishing his homework. Now, Dr. Leonard Sax delves into the scientific literature and draws on more than twenty years of clinical experience to explain why boys and young men are failing in school and disengaged at home. He shows how social, cultural, and biological factors have created an environment that is literally toxic to boys. He also presents practical solutions, sharing strategies which educators have found effective in re-engaging these boys at school, as well as handy tips for parents about everything from homework, to videogames, to medication.
Here is another, more recent treatment on the topic:
I was recently asked about my relationship with Jesus. I realized that I openly and always share my knowledge, but rarely share my personal feelings; those intimate areas deep down in the recesses of my heart and soul.
My relationships are very personal; like my relationship with my wife: I don’t walk around talking about it, and trying to explain the importance of her to me. It’s such a personal part of me. Words cannot adequately describe, it is for me, and her, and not for you: I don’t even try.
Yet, I do talk about what it is like to be married, to have that special connection, that special someone, that safe place to be emotionally, spiritually and physically unclothed and unashamed.
So, while I can’t adequately describe my personal relationships, I can describe what it is like to have them.
If you have such a relationship, you will recognize this refrain; if you don’t, I hope that someday you will be found and enveloped into the most wonderful, indescribable, uncontainable existence.
God chose me. Not for any merit, not for what I had to offer, before the foundations of the world; He knew me, called me, justified me, and is in the process of making me into the image of Jesus.
The things I do, say and think separate me from God; Jesus is my defense attorney, my friend, and confidant. He knows everything about me, and still loves me. He is patient with me in my failings, and compassionate, He provides for my personal, spiritual and family needs.
My seven year old son, out of the blue, quivering with tears, just came to ask mom why his parents didn’t want him, and soon after, with the same tears streaming down his face, came to tell me:
“thank you, thank you for adopting me, I’ll always love you, so much”.
Talk about a tear jerker; I guess some wounds run deep below the surface even when you don’t see them.
I followed the BLM protests in NPN very closely tonight. I have very close friends with dark skin – some of my children have really dark skin. Yet, whatever your shade, if you want to identify with those with ‘black skin’: let me say this: Dark skin is beautiful, but white skin is too; so is every. shade. in-between.
In fact, it’s really the people behind the color that are beautiful, not the color itself – and some people, despite their color, are rotten. Can you really judge everyone who shares a certain shade of melanin by the actions of other similar shades? Every person is unique, every situation is different; It isn’t the skin color that makes you who you are; it is who you are inside and what you do, that makes you who you are.
That said, racism is stupid; the distinction based on skin color is stupid: people are people.
As it relates to tonight’s local protests: I have no idea what blocking traffic does to accomplish the recognition that people are people; but I’m glad there was no reported violence – at least that still leaves our local community with the option to move forward with life without fear of continuous reprisals.
I am proud of our community that it remained non-violent; and yet ask of us all: aren’t there better ways?
Teach your children at home, to understand that we are all created in His image; formed from the same seed, valued in the same way. Don’t teach division and segregation.
There is something indescribable and wondrous about the vast and endless sea. The call of the ocean, echoing in history, throughout the future. I cannot recall physically going into the ocean for the past 30 years. It is an amazing feeling, a feeling of both insignificance and of fortitude: insignificance in the realization of how tiny and insubstantial I am, but strength in realizing that of all creatures in creation this world was made for me.
I, as human, represent the pinnacle of crowning achievement for creation; the most complex, the most intriguing of all creatures with my abilities to think and love and reason in unique ways: being granted the blessing (or curse) of being one of the few known reasoning creatures that will spend most of my lifetime contemplating my own mortality.
I started this weak on Cocoa Beach officiating the wedding of my brother-in-law, and new sister-in-law: Jeremy and Rebecca Jewers. It was an honor and a privilege to be asked to perform the ceremony, it is the second time in my life I have been called upon to do such an amazing thing. Marriage is as wonderful as birth, and baptism; both representing a transition, a newness, a transformation from old to new; from form to form.
2014 Cocoa beach
The wedding started with the scene from the Princess Bride: Mawage, Mawage is what bwings us togethwer today. It was the perfect fit, a perfect couple: a farm boy turned pirate and a princess. Two people, that were meant to be together.
Cocoa beach wedding 2014
On our last night on the beach, Amanda and I were taking a walk down the beach in the moonlight and we ran into a majestic but ominous looking foot long crab. We were in awe at his size and amazed at his beauty, until we saw that he held in his claw a baby hatchling loggerhead turtle.
We immediately went into rescue mode. I took on the crab (and he was vicious!) and encouraged him to drop the turtle (ok, I might have kicked him in the rear with my bare foot while Amanda kept his attention). Then, while I kept the crab occupied (he continued coming after me), Amanda guarded the baby turtle as it made it to the water.
In the end, we both were able to watch the turtle swim out to sea, and we then returned to the crab to take a picture of him. He belongs on the wall of shame! This was one of the most amazing things I have experienced in nature.
Being saved from Monster CrabWall of Shame: Attempting to eat a baby Loggerhead
We are now preparing, after a full week of God’s beautiful nature to head back to the city of San Antonio. We miss friends there, but honestly, we are not overly excited to go back; we miss the nature, the openness, the sea breeze of the east coast. It’s hard to say what the future will hold for us, but one thing for sure. Home is where the heart is, and there is no place like home.
LOGIODICE, PETER PAUL, JR. Peter Paul Logiodice, Jr., age 85, of Orange, passed away on Thursday, March 27, 2014 peacefully in his home. He was born on June 25, 1928 in West Haven to the late Peter Paul and Anna Pucillo Logiodice, Sr. He was employed for over 35 years as a Cable Splicer for the Southern New England Telephone Company. After retiring, he drove a bus for the Orange School System. An active member of the community, he was a member of the Orange Volunteer Fire Department and was a coach for the Orange Little League, an avid gardener and camper in Cape Cod and in his spare time, he attended his grandchildren’s sporting events. Mr. Logiodice is survived by his loving wife, Veronica Molyneux Logiodice, devoted children Peter Paul (Dawn) Logiodice III of Maine, James (Jackie) Logiodice of Rhode Island, William (Roseann) Logiodice of Guilford, CT, Kathleen Logiodice of Madison, CT, Veronica (Louis) Pisano of Orange, CT, Russell (Bouaneung) Logiodice of Milford, CT and Jennifer (Paul Fischer) Logiodice of Idaho, 20 grandchildren, 15 great grandchildren, and sister Mary Benz of Orange. Besides his parents, he is predeceased by his son Thomas John Logiodice, grandson Louis Pisano Jr., brother Pasquale Logiodice and sister Ann Passariello. The family appreciates all the help and support of the nurses and staff at Milford Hospital and Life Choices Hospice. Calling hours are Monday, March 31, 2014 from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm at the Smith & Sefcik Funeral Home, 135 N. Broad St., Milford. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Tuesday at 10:00 am directly in Holy Infant Church, RaceBrook Rd, Orange. Internment will follow in St. Lawrence Cemetery in West Haven. Donations may be made in his name to Life Choices Hospice, www.lifechoicehospice.com, or Orange Volunteer Fire Dept., 625 Orange Center Rd., P.O. Box 878, Orange ,CT 06477 or Leukemia Society, 300 Research Parkway, Suite 310 Meriden, CT 06450. To leave condolences or for directions, please visit our website at: www.georgejsmithandson.com
Published in The New Haven Register on Mar. 30, 2014
As a parent, I want to encourage my children to think and act ‘out of the box’. When I was young, I was weird, I was among the first to start dying my hair different colors in our small town in Maine, I was among the first to start shaving designs into my head and my eyebrows. I was among the first to start wearing mismatching shoes or socks, wearing my ties around my forehead instead of around my neck… and the list goes on and on.
My Father’s day tie 2013 – making everyone jealous!
I want to encourage my children to think differently than everyone else, to march to the beat of their own drum… in fact, at least one of my children, not only march to the beat of his own drum, he invents new types of drum-sticks! I want to encourage that!
So to show my support, I wore my tie to Church today. Yes, there were thousands of people that don’t know me. yes, there are hundreds of people that stared awkwardly. Yes, there were even a few people that commented on and appreciated my tie.
These are the years that they will learn to dance and skip and hop to the music in their head, and not someone else’s tune.
It was very ironic today that Randy from Oak Hills church quoted one of his old professors when he said: “Everyone is born unique, but most die a copy”. Today was my day to remind my children to be themselves – no matter what.
I must say that I am lucky that I only had only one child that made me something wearable this year.
Yet, I wore this to church as I have never really been one to worry about what people think of me – just ask my own parents.
I spent the day watching the posts on social media; over and over. Amazing father, amazing kids, amazing this, amazing that. Blah, blah, blah.
Do any of you actually live on this planet? Are any of you actually honest with yourselves and the rest of the people in your glocal society. Or, are there actually some people out there that have alien’s instead of children. Let me tell you – that word child and hell aren’t all that far off.
We wake up to fighting, we hear fighting all day, we go to sleep to fighting. It’s non-stop, it’s incessant, it’s unyielding.
People tell me all the time “It’s because you have such smart children”, so I have to ask myself – does that mean everyone else’s children are so dumb? Maybe they just aren’t being honest. Maybe they put up this fake facade.
You see, not only do I have children of my own; but I grew up in a family of 6 children too. There was constant fighting and bickering. There was a general lack of showing love to one another, and caring and companionship.
We all care deeply for each other,, now that we are all grown up and have moved out from under a single roof… so maybe there is hope..
That said, I’m surprised my parent’s didn’t drown us all. Good thing they didn’t.
