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Teaching Balance

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If you want to learn to ride a bike, you have to take the training wheels off.

Two weekends ago I took my son to a nearby park and while we were there, he saw a group of older boys riding their bikes. He coveted them. His eyes focused on them and then he turned to me and said, “Mama, I want to ride my bike without the baby wheels.” Immediately, a shiver ran through my spine. My son inherited a lot of my good genes, but unfortunately I think he inherited my lack of balance.

When we arrived home, my husband got to work and removed the training wheels as the little general commanded. He put his Captain America helmet on, jumped on the bike, and without any instructions my husband just pushed him down our driveway with his Herculean strength, as if he were playing bowling. The kid went down straight and crashed against our neighbor’s mail box. Continue reading “Teaching Balance”

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The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

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Last Monday my husband, my son, and yours truly hit the streets of our neighborhood dressed up as Death, Optimum Prime Transformer, and sexy witch, respectively for Halloween. My husband will tell you that my costume fit me to perfection–not only size wise, but also because of my mischievous intuition. By magic, if the weather is nice, I can tell you exactly where my husband is after work: golfing.

Before we left the house for the “Trick or Treat” marathon–there is no other way to call it when you have a five-year-old–I made sure we didn’t walk through one of the nearby streets. A couple of weeks ago, I received an alert through Facebook, about a sex offender moving into our community. When I clicked on the attachment to see the picture of the “monster,” I looked into his eyes and felt a chill run through my spine. Continue reading “The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing”

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A Culture of Lying

Xiomara Spadafora Culture of Lying
When I was a kid, I remember getting in trouble for lying. It was the one “sin” I didn’t want to commit, because like the elders always said, trust is something that can’t be unbroken. This doesn’t mean that I never lied—ask my Mom—but at least I tried hard to avoid getting caught or I spilled my guts full of remorse if outed.

However, the world has changed so much that telling the truth seems like an animal facing extinction. The story of the Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte and his imaginary robbery at gun-point story is the latest and best example of this epidemic. Too often people in the public eye—politicians, newscasters, athletes, or celebrities–get away with murder. Why? Because they have either money or power to reinvent truth. Continue reading “A Culture of Lying”