The Wordsmith's Forge

This poem came out of the October 1, 2024 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from readera. It also fills the "scare" square in my 10-1-24 card for the Fall Fest Bingo. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with fuzzyred. It belongs to the series Clay of Life.

( Read more... )

This article talks about the connection between nationalism and genocide. 

This poem came out of the August 1, 2023 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by discussions with dialecticdreamer and siliconshaman. It also fills the "Red Shoes" square in my 8-1-23 card for the New Adventures Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by callibr8. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.

WARNING: This poem contains intense and controversial material that may disturb many readers. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. It includes canon-atypical violence, events that are historically embarrassing for Canada and the United States of America, racism, racial injustice, graphic descriptions of genocide, kidnapping, child harm, cultural abuse, death camps falsely described as missionary boarding schools, mass murder, widowhood, child death, frank sex talk, orphans, hiding in the woods, and other mayhem. WARN ALL THE THINGS! If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before deciding if this is something you want to read.

( Read more... )

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

What is your definition of evil?


Here ya go! I wrote a whole article on this topic: "The Sword Without a Hilt: Concepts of Evil." As you can see, I have found many excellent descriptions for the various facets of evil.

"Why Are Fire Users Always Evil?" is a brilliant analysis of the (largely untapped) potential of fire magic for constructive rather than destructive uses in worldbuilding and storytelling.

This is the kind of thing that I come to speculative fiction and geekdom for. It's rare nowadays, so seeing an example like this makes me very happy. :D

From my own writing, Fireheart is one of the more heroic people with Fire Powers, and in fact you can see him and several others creating an Eternal Flame in "Gone the Sun."

Revisit those who have passed during the year. These entries from my "Moment of Silence" tag highlight those who have died recently. Some of my posts have a "Carry on the Work" section regarding the person's accomplishments in case anyone else wants to explore those.

Browse ways to celebrate Dia de los Muertos.

Here are some things to do for Samhain. See the Greenhaven Coven page for Samhain and its recipes.

Does anyone else have names to remember?

The great nonreligious gender realignment

Older Americans who left their childhood religion included a greater share of men than women. In the Baby Boom generation, 57 percent of people who disaffiliated were men, while only 43 percent were women. Gen Z adults have seen this pattern flip. Fifty-four percent of Gen Z adults who left their formative religion are women; 46 percent are men.

I suspect that the more certain religions try to force modern women into rigid gender stereotypes, the faster they will hemorrhage members.

Do you need religion to be a moral person?
Religion is a product of, and not a source of, our evolutionary moral dispositions.


This article has some interesting observations about how morality works.

( Read more... )