STROHMEISTER

A stylized illustration of a large flower shape with elongated petals, featuring a small figure standing at the top. The figure appears to be in a dynamic pose, possibly resembling movement or balance.
A man with glasses and long hair is depicted in a surreal style, with intricate illustrations merging into his profile, featuring abstract shapes and a cosmic background.
Artistic graphic featuring the phrase 'From the Mind of the Alchemist' with intricate illustrations including a serpent, a star-like sun, and abstract figures.
A colorful illustration of a person surfing on a stylized wave, featuring swirling lines in blue, orange, and yellow, with the text 'Surfing Planet' at the bottom.
  • The Crack in Everything: How Trauma Made Me a Teacher

    The Crack in Everything: How Trauma Made Me a Teacher

    Tonight is my 30th High School Reunion. I thought about going. I’m not. While I feel less animosity than I did for the 10th or the 20th, the invite—and the social media blitz from the class Instagram account—opened a trauma wound that hadn’t fully healed. It was a May weekend in 1994. The Rangers had…

  • Twisted Sonnet

    Twisted Sonnet

    I sat with my coffee and journal this morning and was feeling iambic. At first I was afraid my iron was low, but the hemogleebinglobbinglobin all the while and it was then I realized I was straining a terrible pun way beyond its tensile strength (you tensile! Fork you!)… but I digress… my puns are…

  • I hated coloring inside the lines, so I decided to make my own

    I hated coloring inside the lines, so I decided to make my own

    I hated coloring inside the lines, so I decided to make my own. As soon as that sentence entered my head, I knew it was important. I knew it was more than the sum of its words’ meanings.

  • #F It

    #F It

    How many fields have fallen fallow from failure to follow A path that seemed to far For fear of finding my self Forgetting I’m found?

  • The Abusive Father and the Wayward Child: Framing Nationalism as Trauma

    The Abusive Father and the Wayward Child: Framing Nationalism as Trauma

    A very sick, cruel, sadistic, manipulatively maladjusted sociopath is punishing the half of the country who haven’t sold their souls to him. The Democrats refused to allow him to strip working-class people of food stamps and healthcare. Surprisingly, they held their ground as he and his minions kept the government closed—among other things—to stave off…

  • AN Open Letter To President Donald J. Trump

    AN Open Letter To President Donald J. Trump

    Dear Donald, May I call you Donald? You’ve made it quite clear that you would like to win a Nobel Peace Prize before you die… and let’s face it, brother, you’re not looking very good. It’s becoming increasingly clear that you’re not the one pulling the strings anymore on Pennsylvania Avenue. You seem to have…

  • Unmasking The Exile: Internal Family Systems & The Self

    Unmasking The Exile: Internal Family Systems & The Self

    40+ years of surrendering in advance. 40+ years of self-deprecation as self-defense. 40+ years of believing what they tell me so that they’ll like me. 40+ years of wearing a mask that never let me fully breathe.

  • The Training Ground

    The Training Ground

    I never felt like I belonged in that town. Leaving it is one of my personal triumphs. But it still lives in my head… The bullying, the classism, the snobbery, the racism… It all formed me, for better or for worse. It gave me a conviction. Make no mistake, there were and still are good…

  • Chapter Two

    Chapter Two

    What is a year? 365 days, 52 weeks, 12 months, a spiral journey around a star around a black hole around infinity?

  • Teaching: Empowerment, Not Indoctrination

    Teaching: Empowerment, Not Indoctrination

    If I start demanding you see the world my way, I’m no better than a fascist. It is important to me that I teach you how to follow paths of logic. It is important to me that you know how to make your own paths when the well-worn ones are outdated.

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