Dr. Jillian Todd Weiss blogs at Transgender Workplace Diversity. Her site is targeted at HR and Diversity Professionals, but I find it to be a great read for the common trans-person just looking for information, ideas and developments in this subject area. All of the posts are well worth your time reading and thinking about over a nice cup of ice coffee, but one in particular really caught my attention and it may you as well.

The post is “Issue: Draft Transition Plan” and it covers how a company might make itself prepared for an employee that decides to transition on the job. It’s part of a series Dr. Weiss is doing regarding possible issues that organizational policy on transgender employess in the workplace should address. The specific post I am referring to covers how an organisation and the transgender employee might draft a memo of understanding, in a sense, that allows for clear guidelines on what is to be expected on both sides regarding the employees transition.

You can reach this excellent post and Dr. Weiss’s suggested guidlines by clicking to her blog at this link HERE and scrolling down to the Friday May 26th, 2006 post, “Issue: Draft Transition Plan”. You may also click to the plan itself at this link HERE (05/24/07 link no longer works).
(question mark used under Creative Commons license and courtesy of Mac(3) photos)

  Monday is Memorial Day here in the United States. For most people, it’s the start of Summer and not really considered as more than that. But in reality, Memorial Day, which was orignally known as Decoration Day, it is a very important day as it’s the day that is set aside in the USA to remember those who have died in our nations service. For a very interesting history of Memorial Day, you can click over to the Memorial Day.org site at this link HERE. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has a nice bit of information as well HERE.

So to all our veterans reading this page – THANK YOU for serving our country and helping to keep it free.

Are you manly? Mr. Harvey Mansfield has some thoughts that will challenge you on this. Harvey Mansfield is a 73 year old government professor and conservative elder statesman of Harvard University. And, he’s manly. Indeed, he’s got a book out on the subject as well, entitled Manliness.

Actually, in his words,he’s most interested helping to “convince skeptical readers-above all,educated women” of his argument that:

“it should be recognized that men will be manly and sometimes a bit bossy…and that women will recognize manliness with a smile by checking it while giving it something to do, or, on occasion, by urging it on.”

To some, Mr. Mansfield is really driving a further misogynist view at Harvard and in academia in general (you can read that view at Media Girl’s blog at this link here). To others, Mr Mansfiled is simply bringing forward the view that men need not be afraid to be manly.

But if the definition of being manly is, “confidence in a risky situation”. Then where do you stand in this? Mr Mansfield has listed the following as those whom he would consider manly (remember our defintion above):

• Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Humphrey Bogart
• Donald Rumsfeld
• Margaret Thatcher
• Hillary Clinton

Surprised? I was. And it made me rethink my definition of manliness. Frankly, I didn’t think myself more manly, not by a long shot. Many FtM’s are far more manly than I’ll ever be. But Mr. Mansfields’s provative stance makes me rethink the kind of person I want to be and the kind of heart I want as I face life’s challenges.

Mr. Mansfield’s model of Manliness though is Achilles. In Mr. Mansfield’s view Achilles was a man of virtue and all men of virtue are fit to rule because they resolve to defend a cause larger than themselves – a manly action that is the best and truest of it’s kind. But regardless of gender, I would suggest such a character trait is something that all of us would want to aspire to. The alternative seems craven.

Jennifer Boylan mentions in her book, “She’s Not There“, that really we all need to have the courage to face our personal dragons and be courageous enough to face them down and slay them. That’s all she was trying to do. While that sounds pretty manly to me, isn’t that the essence of the kind of courage you want to have? Think about that scene from The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, where Eowyn slays the leader of the Ring Wraiths. Now that’s courage!

What we all need to do is consider what kind of people we need to be, not whether our gender allows us to be this way or that way. Surely, when a man opens the door for me, I find it nice and I like it. I think he’s being a gentleman, But to fight a cause I think we all want to consider how we can be manly – to be confident in risky situations not for gender gain, but so that the causes we fight for that are larger than ourselves can be slain and victory won for many.

(source material for this article from The Wall Street Jornal, 03/04/2006, page A8, mountain top photo courtesy of eWeaver )

What could be more fun and tasty than a bowl of warm chili on a chilly Spring day? Try this chili recipe that has a twist with health. I made this and originally thought “there’s no way my family will eat it this” I was wrong! They love it, and this from a group that is generally suspicious of my culinary experiments.

Ingredients (for 4 people):

1/2 cup of minced onions

4 minced garlic cloves

1/2 cup of chopped celery

1 cup of chopped red bell peppers (these would be the sweet ones not the hot ones

1 lb of lean ground turkey

2 potatoes cubed

One 28oz can crushed or diced tomotoes (diced tomatoes make the chili more chunky)

One 28oz bottle of tomatoe sauce

One 16oz can of pinto beans or kidney beans (this is optional, depending on if you have bean haters or lovers at your table)

Chili powder, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper to taste

How to do it

In a large pot that has been coated with nonstick spary, brown the onions and garlic (about 5 minutes on medium heat). Toss in the celery and red peppers and cook till soft, stirring occassionally. Then add the turkey, stirring occassionally, cook till no longer pink.

When the turkey is no longer pink, add the potatoes, tomatoe sauce and canned tomatoes. Also add in chili powder, salt and pepper to taste. Simmer on medium to low heat for about 15 to 20 minutes until the potates are fork tender.

(Photo courtesy of ndrwfgg used under Creative Commons License)