Posts by Ben Auxier

No matter how fiery they may start, most relationships settle in and get a little duller after a while. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s exhausting to be on fire all the time, especially as you get older. At some point you just want someone to share your life with in a way that’s...

The science is in and the conclusion is undeniable – the internet loves a good proposal story. People in general, online or off, love a good proposal story. Which almost makes the whole enterprise of planning a proposal more intimidating. After all, what if trying to tell the story for years afterward is disappointing? What...

I have this memory from when I was a little kid. I was in the bathroom, holding a fork, and I stuck it in the electrical socket that was low on the wall, facing the living room. Not only did I feel electricity surging through me, but I somehow actually saw THROUGH the wall into...

When you say “I do” to the “death do you part,” bit it’s hard to think about what that actually means. That means that, most likely, at some point, one of you is going to watch the other die. It’s a terrible thing to think about, though there is comfort in knowing you can face...

Growing up, dealing with my school bully was the absolute worst. He was relentless. Granted, I was homeschooled, so the bully was me, but still, I can be quite a handful. Truthfully, it wasn’t until I made it into the adult world that I really started experiencing what the whole bullying thing was about, because...

There’s an old country song by Hank Williams that I grew up knowing and I have no idea why. It’s half cheater’s lament and half telltale heart. “Your cheatin’ heart will make you weep You’ll cry and cry and try to sleep But sleep won’t come The whole night through Your cheatin’ heart will tell...

Buckle up, kids, because today we’re talking about arthritis. Which is defined by the Mayo Clinic like this: “Arthritis is the swelling and tenderness of one or more of your joints. The main symptoms of arthritis are joint pain and stiffness, which typically worsen with age.” That age part is important, because in most people’s’...

Break ups can be absolutely brutal. Think about your worst break up. Now imagine breaking your arm. If you had to pick between living out one of those two experiences this year, which would you choose? It’s kind of a no-brainer in favor of the bone shatter, right? Of course, it doesn’t always go terribly....

We hear a lot about male-dominated professions and industries, many of which got that way through an explicit culture of exclusion that’s had ripple effects throughout history. Rarely do you hear about the flip-side of that experience: the jobs where men are in the minority. Which jobs are these, exactly, and how does it play...

They say that once you get married, the romance is dead. The sizzle is gone. The heat is cold. But of course, that’s not everyone’s experience, and you’d hope it wouldn’t be yours. Obviously it’s expected you’ll settle in a bit as you get older. Our bodies change, our drives change, our minds change. But...

It’s funny the things we learn from our parents. They try to teach us lessons explicitly, of course, with varying degrees of success, but a lot of what we learn – and this is not realized until adulthood – comes more from just watching them. Whether leading by example or providing a class in what-not-to-do,...

If you’ve ever had the misfortune of being close to someone who’s a theatre nerd, they’ve probably bothered you at some point about how great the musical Into the Woods is. It’s a heady sort of show – full of philosophical musings and complex human contradictions, told through the lens of interlocking fairytales and what...

I have two sisters. I’m right in the middle – spaced an even 2 years apart. Suffice it to say I spent a lot of my childhood getting yelled at for playing Barbie “wrong.” But sisterly love can be a powerful thing – as these anonymous folks will tell with their real life stories. 14....

Human ingenuity is a truly marvelous thing – it’s one of the core elements that has allowed us to become the dominant species on this planet. Our propensity for tinkering, crafting, organizing, and beautifying is central to our existence. But MAN, are we bad at it sometimes. Just take these dangerous design fails, courtesy of...

Looking around at the world and the news therein, it can be easy to lose your hope for humanity. Like, REALLY easy. Like, absurdly ridiculously easy. …like, you might be considered an absolute fool if you DON’T lose your hope, that’s how easy it is. But we really do need to temper all the bad...