REBOOT - "Raised By Wolves" is now Recklass In The Next Chapter

Okay, I resisted for as long as I could (unless you count the few Facebook shares I could not keep my sharing finger from selecting), but I have to take to the keys to ask… …how will we heal? The political climate is only the mirror of a country struggling to “grow –up,” and we’re as conflicted as a teenager on a Friday night. (Trust me, I know as I enter full force into a second puberty – it ain’t pretty!) It’s a time when we have cast off the social decorum and intelligent ways of communicating that have, for better or worse, gotten us this far as a country and a society. Somehow the gloves are off and we all, willingly, with full intention ,say things, print things, infer things, and worst of all, SHOUT things that we want to be incendiary, not caring if they are accurate, and actually hope that they will hurt… …without any thought of the consequences. I’m as guilty as the next girl. I look to score points, like a boxer peppering my opponent with body shots to “weaken” him ...

Hard right turn. I'm on a plane flying out of Burbank airport. It's Wednesday, September 21st. We shot down the runway heading west and as we lifted into the sky we took a graceful sweeping, high banking turn to the right and headed east... I'm heading to Arizona. I'm a blender of emotions. Joy. Excitement. Tears. Fears. I'm not turning back; I'm heading in the right direction. I'm hours away from talking to a surgeon. My surgeon. For my surgery. Yes, surgery. The surgery. That surgery. Gender Confirmation Surgery. I am writing this in real time. This is a day… well, it’s a day I never thought would come. I’m not using those words lightly. This isn’t a day long looked for, a day, like Christmas, graduation, or even my wedding day. No. This is a day that I never believed could ever come. As the cabin pressure clutches my head, I feel a need to sleep (the natural Madden safety “override” when things are beyond intense), but I’m also dr...

I've been talking a lot in this blog about what I am receiving as the new girl. So much so, that I could rename this weekly venture "An embarrassment of riches." And before we go too far, I hope I have been clear I am an incredibly lucky girl. My father used to keep me grounded (and I'm not sure my pops get enough props in my recent writings. He was, despite a few flaws, flawless—a force of nature that has 50% stake in the woman I am today, and I am proud to be his daughter). Where was I?... Oh yeah, he would say, "… but for an accident of birth ..." to make sure I never got ahead of or behind myself in the entitlement department. As a working-class Irish kid from the pseudo mean streets of 1950's Marine park Brooklyn (in early pictures, he was just like the Jets of “West Side Story,” the kind that would taunt an Officer Krupke into chasing him and his fellow hooligans from their shenanigans), my pop knew that the only thing between the Maddens and su...

RBW 7 “Confessions of the new girl.” Okay…   I recently had a “come-uppance” from a dearly cherished big sister, Alex. I’ve been developing a TV dramedy series based on my book, “Getting Back To Me – from girl to boy to woman in just fifty years,” with the amazing and fabulous Valerie C. Woods. Through Grace (I don’t believe in luck, per se ) and dear friends, we are blessed to have the best of the best to sign on to play the character based on me. The incomparable Alexandra Billings. The great news is, we started to become friends before I even approached her about the script. We both share being married to the most amazing women on the planet for over twenty years. And tho’ the divine Ms. Billings transitioned when she was in her 20s, we also share an uncompromising world view of the preciousness of this life—lives that just wouldn’t be denied despite everything we tried. Something Alexandra calls the “gift.” I’m telling you this to point this week’s spotligh...