THE MYTH OF QUALITY TIME | New York Times In this prosaic op-ed piece, Frank Bruni debunks the myth of "quality time" through the discoveries revealed to him by committing to his annual family beach trip and staying for the entire seven days and seven nights. In earlier years, he admits to joining the vacation late or leaving early because he craved his space and thought shorter would be better - quality over quantity. But over the years he has found that there is no substitute for physical . . .

WHITE WOMANHOOD AND MYSELF | Karen Lynn Yang Karen Lynn Yang, an Asian American woman, reflects on her love/hate relationship with white women crediting them with both her inherited moral framework as well as her acquired disillusionment with evangelical purity culture. While she grew up with white women as role models, she came to the realization she could never assimilate into white womanhood. Where once Karen desired a blonde ponytail and rosy blush, she is finally comfortable in her own . . .

THE WEDDING TOAST I'LL NEVER GIVE | The New York Times In this Modern Love piece, Ada Calhoun talks about the wedding toast she will never give at any of her friends' weddings after being married for 11 years. She writes that while she loves weddings and she is happy to clap through the vows of being best friends forever, there will be days when he will not be your best friend and you will look upon this man you once adored and only feel rage. You will daydream about what it would be like to . . .

SPAIN'S SOLIDARITY FRIDGE | NPR.ORG In the Basque town of Galdakao,  a community cuts down on food waste by delivering leftovers to a communal fridge known as the Solidarity Fridge. An inspiring legacy of the financial crisis's imprint on Spain, the culture of the Basque region ("to eat well") helps its own in a time where unemployment rates are still high and the people are still reeling from a devastating economic crisis. Inspired by images of people searching dumpsters for food, Alvaro . . .

RACE IN THE US: KNOW YOUR HISTORY"We are a nation of contradictions. We continue to fight the same battles over and over, decade after decade, generation after generation without facing reality. We put band aids on lacerations and hope the cancer of racial hatred won’t recur. Once again, we are at a pivotal moment. The pendulum is moving. It is as clear as it has ever been that what we know about our history shapes the way we think of ourselves, the way we think of our government and the way we . . .

ON THE DEATH OF SANDRA BLAND AND OUR VULNERABLE BODIESBecause Sandra Bland was driving while black, because she was not subservient in the manner this trooper preferred, a routine traffic stop became a death sentence. Even if Ms. Bland did commit suicide, there is an entire system of injustice whose fingerprints left bruises on her throat.TRYING OUT SLOW PARENTINGThis month, I’m inspired to slow down and let the boys take the lead. Maybe we’ll skip a carousel excursion and instead just walk . . .

I loved this post from Chookooloonks about choosing experiences over material things and couldn't agree more . . . The truth is that buying or owning high end or name brand stuff has never been something that has turned me on — honestly, I’m pretty tight with my money. Tight, that is, until we’re talking about spending it on an experience with people I love — then you don’t have to try too hard to convince me to part with my cash. As it turns out, that there’s some logic to this: . . .

DEAR NELLIE ANDREEVA AND DEADLINE, ABOUT YOUR PIECE ON TOO MUCH "ETHNIC CASTING" ON TV | AWESOMELY LUVVIE Sometimes, white people are like the kid in kindergarten who always wanted to play with your toys but they’d never let you play with theirs. You try to tell them your toy is only for you and they’ll report you to the teacher saying you didn’t share. It’s like how white folks whined about not being in SELMA (even though the movie did show the contributions of some white characters but logic . . .

AN APOLOGY FROM THE DAD IN THE “I LEARNED IT BY WATCHING YOU' COMMERCIAL | FUNNY OR DIE I’m not even gonna lie, son, pretty much right after I uttered the words “Who taught you how to do this stuff?” I was like, “Oh, fucking me, obviously. I do drugs in front of him all the time” — but then it became one of those things where you’ve already started saying something and you feel like you have to stick with it or you’ll sound dumb … But I see now that the real dumb thing was on the drive to Aunt . . .

This post by Erin Loechner about social media and its tendency to breed envy and discontent is one of the best things I've read in a long time: "We know we’re not supposed to grocery shop when hungry. We know the result – a cart full of empty choices that make us salivate but will not nourish. And yet, we do this every day, right here. We blink at the screen, our thumbs scrolling down, down, down. Another sunset. Another macaroon. Another fiddle leaf fig tree.We are starving, our hunger . . .