Contact Calvin if you'd like him to speak to you.
LGBT Labyrinth: Journey through the LGBTTIQQ2SAA labyrinth exploring words, labels, definitions, and identities. Grow in a deeper understanding of gender identity and sexual orientation as benign natural phenomena and a whopping no big whup.
Violence: Explore the violence that we experience in ourselves and from others. Where is the violence rooted, what feeds it, how does it behave, and why? How do I respond to violence in me? How do I respond to the violence of another? Self-destruction is also violence. Young people are well acquainted with suicide, self-mutilation, drugs and alcohol, eating disorders, depression. The truth about violence must be spoken for an alternative to emerge. This story explores Calvin’s own descent into near total self-destruction and how he climbed back out to near total sanity, perhaps even a touch of happiness. And an all-consuming commitment to compassion.
Compassion: What is compassion? What does it mean to “suffer with”? How does it affect a person to feel the pain of others? In what ways is this better than the alternative?
Body image: In what ways does your body define who you are? In what ways does it reflect someone you’re not? Being transsexual raises questions about the relationship between body and mind and what a body means to the consciousness inhabiting it. How does body image affect each of us, to be male or female or tall or short or thin or fat or attractive or plain? What matters and what doesn’t? Does any of it matter?
Friendship and community: Why are these important? What value do they bring? Are there any limits to who can be included in the circle of belonging? This would emphasize the importance of investing in family, friends, and community even when it’s difficult. Especially when it’s difficult.
Diet: Explore ways in which our food choices can be mindful, sustainable, and compassionate so that, to the best of our abilities, what we eat promotes good living and reflects our deepest values. We can only benefit from understanding how what we eat impacts our health, the earth and its inhabitants.
Safe spaces for youth: Understanding and responding to gender non-conforming children or adolescents. How to talk about gender and sexual diversity - how to learn about it too - and how to create a safe space for all youth. This can be presented from the perspective of students creating safe space for themselves and their peers, teachers creating safe space for their students, or parents creating safe space for their children.
