I often cried in front of my father and he would just look away, disgusted at the sight of a bawling kid. “What,” he would sputter,” are you doing?” “How is crying going to solve anything?” He saw tears as a sign of weakness, or he may just have been...

Phobias are a funny thing.  In college, I met someone who feared nothing more than beans.  Just looking at a picture of a pinto bean caused him to start gagging. I thought it was all a joke at first, but after years of going to every exteme to avoid the rogue legume , I understood that this...