Martin Vidal
Bio
Author of A Guide for Ambitious People, Flower Garden, and On Authorship
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Stories (32)
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The Butcher’s Table. Content Warning.
I chop the meat. My job is one of transformation. We start with the husk of a living thing. It’s recognizable as a corpse. The bones are arrayed into a skeleton, the machinery of the muscles is still obvious, we can see the tendons that fasten it all together, and there is an image of the whole with all its functioning parts.
By Martin Vidal6 months ago in Fiction
A Walk in the Park
Mother and father are so tall. I’m so small by comparison. I wish they’d lift me to their level. Of course, she says no again. How can your arms be tired if you haven’t been using them? That’s just a lie. I hate that she does that. Let me not show that I’m upset though. At least we’re at the park. I love it here. Let me enjoy this.
By Martin Vidal8 months ago in Families
Why Cars Are Evil
Owning a car can make for a nice luxury. It’s private and more freeing than the alternatives, and to live in some cities, it’s all but a necessity that you have one to get around in. This article is not meant to criticize individuals for owning cars. It’s often the best decision for them. However, if one could design a city to be car-centric versus having well-developed public transportation, there’s no question that the latter is a much better aim than the former. By every conceivable metric, cars extract an unnecessary cost when compared to the alternative.
By Martin Vidal2 years ago in Earth
I’ve Never Seen My Parents Kiss. Content Warning.
I’ve often heard people tell the story of their parent’s divorce. They look sad as they say it happened when they were 8, 10, 14, or some other age at which they were aware of what was going, and I’ve always pitied them for it. My parents got divorced so soon after I was born that I never really identified with the other children of divorce. I felt like I had no basis for comparison; I have no memory of the before, and I wasn’t even cognizant of the divorce as it happened. I’d usually shrug my shoulders, act like it didn’t affect me, and reserve my pity for the real victims: those who were old enough to be conscious of what was happening as it happened. But recently, I’ve begun to reconsider.
By Martin Vidal2 years ago in Families
Should You Apologize if You Were Wronged First?
A few years back, I read the book Hiroshima by John Hersey. It recounted with devastating detail the effect of the nuclear bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War. The annihilation of Hiroshima is a tragedy of unbelievable proportions. 78,000 people were killed instantly; many tens of thousands died later from the after effects. Moreover, this was a city — a civilian target — and the bomb decimated men, women, and children indiscriminately. Many of the people involved in creating and deploying the atomic bomb have voiced their compunctions about doing so. Yet, in the many decades that have passed, every American president has refused to apologize for the act. The U.S. has officially apologized for a number of things over the years, including the overthrow of the kingdom of Hawaii, slavery and Jim Crow, the Tuskegee experiment, and the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Why not, then, apologize for dropping the atomic bomb?
By Martin Vidal2 years ago in Humans
My Grandparents Don’t Get Along
I recently stopped seeing a woman who I had been dating for the last 11 months. On our very first date, I told her we had “triple sigma” chemistry. For those of you who aren’t math nerds, three sigma is three standard deviations. In other words, it’s something that only has a .3% chance of happening. I was letting her know just how rare I thought our chemistry was.
By Martin Vidal2 years ago in Humans
How to Know When It’s Time to Give Up
Throughout 2022 and 2023, I kept a close eye on economic conditions. As the government attempted to rein in inflation by quickly raising interest rates, everyone who monitored such things was anticipating a recession. However, months and months went by and the data continued to confound most market participants with every piece of news showing an economy as strong as it ever was.
By Martin Vidal2 years ago in Motivation
Dating apps are setting men and women up for failure — but for different reasons
Are you on a dating app? If so, you’re screwed — and not in the way you hoped. The apps are structurally flawed, and that’s bringing about a mass inequity which is messing things up for everyone. To understand it, we need to briefly refresh our knowledge on Economics 101.
By Martin Vidal2 years ago in Humans
Everyone Should Vote Democrat in November
I’m not a Democrat, or at least not a natural one. I consider myself a small-government liberal. We’re so used to hearing “small-government conservative” that hearing something different might ring like an oxymoron to some people, but to my mind, liberalism — which is fundamentally about individual freedoms — organically aligns with a small-government approach. If we could ever have a viable libertarian party, I would probably only ever vote for them, but as it stands, I identify as independent and have voted for Democrats most of my adult life.
By Martin Vidal2 years ago in The Swamp
5 Steps to Get an Emotionally Unavailable Man to Open Up
A man that is actively withholding his emotions in relationships is demonstrating a dismissive-avoidant attachment style. It’s important to remember that the dismissive-avoidant attachment style is an insecure attachment style, so they’re going to act disinterested, conceal their emotions, maintain distance, and be quick to withdraw, but these are all defense mechanisms. You’re ultimately dealing with someone who is likely more sensitive than normal, not less sensitive (as they pretend to be).
By Martin Vidal2 years ago in Humans
