We all believe in change at Oprah.com. But when you're in jail, that change is all the more difficult—if not, in many cases, impossible (one study found that 52 percent of all offenders in America end up re-incarcerated). This summer, as the Today show originally reported in this moving, altogether inspiring interview, an organization called Hope House reconnects kids with their incarcerated fathers by offering both parties a chance to catch up at an in-prison summer camp, complete with sing-alongs and art projects.

Every Monday, we're rounding up things—small and big—that made us stop and think. Today, we were captivated by a paean to postcards, a consciousness-raising moment on Broadway, and more...

"It just might be that the greatest threat to monogamy is the uncritical acceptance of it."
Tracy Clark-Flory, Salon.com sex and relationships writer, on what she learned from Salon's series about monogamy.

"...unlike letters, [post]cards require a verbal concision that can rise to high level of eloquence: brief and heart-breaking glimpses into someone’s existence, in addition to countless amusing and well-told anecdotes."
Poet Charles Simic on the lost art of postcard writing.

"I read Proust first, before Freud...And I think I simply realized that there was nothing, absolutely nothing, more fascinating than human nature. And human relations."
From a 2008 Guardian article about Hanna Segal, psychoanalyst who popularized play therapy for children, who died last week at age 92.

"People generally laud you for raising a well-rounded girl who knows how to wield a baseball bat as well as a princess wand...Watching [Billy Elliott], I started to think about all the useful things I've taught my daughter over the years ...I began to wonder what it might have been like had I had a boy instead. Would I have let him enroll in ballet if he wanted? I like to think so. I hope so.”
Mike Adamick, Jezebel's “Daddy Issues” columnist, on raising a well-rounded boy.

"Most foodies sneer at the word 'fusion'...but in fact, the fusion impulse is the human impulse--to cross over, to integrate two different, sometimes warring worlds, to create a new meaning.”
Todd Kliman, food and wine editor of The Washingtonian, writing about the "authenticity of food" in Lucky Peach.

Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday.

Photo: Courtesy of Of a Kind

* This limited-edition (there are only 40!) leather wallet is simple enough not to intimidate the guy who's been carrying the same tri-fold since college, but handsome enough to give you a little something extra to smile about when he's treating you to dinner. (Of a Kind)

* SNL's Andy Samberg explains how he came to be Chief Shark Officer for Discovery's Shark Week. (YouTube)

* Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune, a documentary on the '60s folksinger who had "a stance, six strings, and an insistent voice," explores Ochs' contribution to both music and politics. Whether you're looking for the story of someone who fought passionately for his beliefs or you just want a killer classic soundtrack, the film came out on DVD last week. (PhilOchstheMovie.com)

* How adorable is this dad doing his daughter's hair? (Cute Girls Hairstyles)

* After speaking at the Save Our Schools rally, Matt Damon proves he's a real-life action hero in his defense of teachers. Warning: there's some NSFW language in the video. (The Stranger)

* Speaking of teachers, Dave Eggers has written a lovely remembrance of Jay Criche, the man who encouraged him to become a writer: "He was curious, so we were curious. He was hungry for learning, so we were hungry, too. He made us want to impress him with the contents of our brains. He taught us how to think and why." (Salon)

When the hilarious, heart-warming book Unlikely Friendships came out this month—documenting a rhino and a goat that were best buddies, as well as an orangutan and a tiger cub—we were instantly reminded of very human "odd couples" we've observed at restaurants, befriended on vacation or even been in ourselves.  For example, the Cheetah and the Anatolian Shepherd.

Every Monday, we're rounding up things--small and big--that made us stop and think. Today, we were moved and inspired by two survivors of violence, a writer reporting from the domestic front, a woman who stopped waiting to be chosen and more...  

Writer Ruth Davis Konigsberg on the "chore wars" being waged in American homes:
Actress Brit Marling on co-writing scripts with roles for herself:
"How terrifying to surrender your life to being chosen all the time. Writing so that I can act became a way of having not more control over my future but not having to wait for permission."

Tom Ford on the universality of the mid-life crisis:
"It comes to everybody, maybe in your thirties, maybe in your forties, maybe in your sixties or seventies, who knows. You get to the moment where you feel the clock is ticking and you are wondering if you are really getting the most out of your life."

Kara Curtis, a morbidly obese woman in upstate New York, speaking to NPR about her struggle with weight and shame:
"There were periods of time when I used to hang skinny pictures of myself up on my fridge. But that was brutal and mean. And I don't want to be brutal and mean to myself."

OWN Documentary Club's first original documentary, Serving Life, produced by Academy Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker, offers a searing look inside the Louisiana State Penitentiary, a maximum-security facility in Angola, Louisiana, where inmates volunteer to work in the prison's hospice. 

Men! What are they thinking? We can't always answer that, but we'll be posting our favorite glimpses into their world in this space every Thursday.



* Stephen Colbert breaks character for Dan Savage's It Gets Better Project. [It Gets Better via The Daily What]

* Want to catch a good mood? When Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon reprise their roles as hip-hop chroniclers in "History of Rap, Take 2," their enthusiasm is positively contagious. [Vulture]

* "The magic of the relationship between the baseball field and its beyond is such as to invite the grandest mythical and metaphorical projections."—Herschel Farbman in "Baseball Fans and the Ball in the Stands" [The Awl]

* This old time sling shot is guaranteed to be a hit with any guy who is on good terms with his inner child. [Hicoree's Hard Goods]

* And if you're worried you might eventually regret gifting a weapon that has the potential to destroy both your favorite lamp and your vision, you can still satisfy the boyish curiosity of men and children alike with this neat study about how suits of armor influenced medieval battles. [BBC]

* "In our crucial human capacities to think, to create, to work, to love, I do not see men and women as different."—Robert Olen Butler, author of A Small Hotel, in O's Twitter chat with him.

Is there love after love?  After a painful breakup, it can feel like you'll never want to see a certain someone again. You might even want to, say, dump all his (or her) overpriced, pretentious, toasted-gold-and-ego flavored coffee into the cat litter box, stir it up, and the scoop it all back into the coffee bag--so that he (or she) will have a delightful early morning drink the first morning in his (or her) new, much larger (!) apartment.

Which is why the world works in more mysterious, wiser ways.