“The systematic looting of language can be recognized by the tendency of its users to forgo its nuanced, complex, mid-wifery properties for menace and subjugation. Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence…” ~Toni Morrison, 1993 Nobel Lecture in Literature This segment of Creative Flexibility and Annihilated Lives is published in partnership with Voices Compassion Education . Like many authors I dive headlong almost every  day into a torrential flow of words sparkling with possibilities. I then work  to extract from that linguistic flow a collective of sounds, imagery, ideas,  and entire compositions capable of offering relevant reflections of the world  experienced both inside and outside my own head. Such a mindful exercise in  disciplined creative passion tends to focus my thoughts more on striking a  balance between the unyielding clarity of prose and the seductive allusiveness of ...

Varieties of angels, like varieties of love, are many. It is therefore not too surprising that the angelic imagery utilized to help celebrate Valentine’s Day tends to range from innocent blushing cherubs to winged beauties swagged out in erotic creations worthy of placement in a Victoria’s Secret catalog. Valentine’s Day itself, like most holidays in the modern era, has been heavily influenced by commercialism that focuses on the appeal of romantic fantasies. The effective marketing of Valentine fantasy movies such as Winter’sTale (with Colin Farrell, Jennifer Connelly, and Jessica Brown Findlay);and the film Endless Love (with Gabriella Wilde and Alex Pettyfer) support that observation. Movies can provide tear-inducing or comically-entertaining representations of love but many agree that its deeper conflicting complexities often seem unfathomable. That is largely because different human hearts often interpret their experiences of love in different ways. ...