The True Power of Balls Out Risk and Monumentally Fucking Up
I was thinking about the botched horror of the Fyre Festival the other day. This lead me to thinking about the Chicago Fire Festival, created by Red Moon Theatre, where the City spent a whole freaking truckload of money and, on the night of the event, no one could get anything lit on fire.
![I Believe… [A Lightly Worn Hat]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/579fa3912994ca0eff850271/1581045814563-QDS6EGV5KEMOPXCEXYM6/IMG_2541.jpeg)
I Believe… [A Lightly Worn Hat]
…that like a character in an improvised scene, a job should be treated like a lightly worn hat, instantly removed to reveal the true self whenever necessary.
Trip Report Day 7: Grand Canyon, Arizona
Why I Shave My Beard (Or Why I Grow One in the First Place)
How odd to change my costume to solidify who I am.
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of February 2, 2020
The Republican Party has unquestionably revealed itself to be criminals and cowards while the Democratic Party has unquestionably revealed itself to be grossly incompetent cowards.
Once King
He’s a man who seems older than he is as he stoops over a broom and pushes dried leaves and debris off the street. His task is never-ending. Day or night, you will find him cleaning the square under the shadow of the castle.
The Minutes of Our Last Meeting – Presidential Medal of Rush
I want my State of the Union speech to melt all the snowflakes across America, like if climate change were a real thing.
Handling That Which We Already Knew Would Come to Pass
Second, screaming in response to what we knew would happen without even an ounce of doubt accomplishes no more than a child in want of a Slurpee throwing himself to the sticky 7-11 floor and wailing like a banshee unless he gets it.
Trip Report | Day 6: Grand Canyon, Arizona
“We should invite them for a drink,” I said after we left to go shove their plastic levelers under more wheels of our rig.
“Maybe,” Dave said. “Did you see the bumper sticker?”
“No,” though I had noticed the model name on their trailer was Connect.
“Trump-Pence 2020,” Dave said.
![I Believe… [Booooooooobs….]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/579fa3912994ca0eff850271/1580752187277-HGYQ9JTDSYD7F4W8H5Z6/IMG_2541.jpeg)
I Believe… [Booooooooobs….]
…that there is a disconnect between the culture of #MeToo and the culture of bikini model influencers and I’d elucidate but my brain is addled by all the boooooooobs…
Fifty-Four Years Doesn’t Seem Like That Long: What I Absorbed In the Past 365 Days
Every birthday since I was in eighth grade, I have spent some going through the year I just ended and looked for the lessons it held for me. Today I turn to page 54 in the Book, so here are the lessons of Year 54.
Holding My Son as We’re Violently Burned to Death
But, son, I was not lying when I said I’d do anything to protect you.
Anything to keep you safe.
Sometimes that meant watching you put yourself in harm’s way.
Life is pointless without risk.
Sometimes it meant watching you get your heart broken
or hearing your bones break from the bleacher seats on the sidelines.
Harm and hurt, you see, are unfortunately, required of us.
The Universe demands it.
They are two of the many ways we learn and become stronger, better people.
Or so I always tried to be better
and I hope that I instilled that desire in you.
An Ass and His Dog
For who-knows-how-long, it was just Loren and Lady. And he went nowhere without her. Yes. Even in the ER, the old Irish Setter was lying on the floor, gazing up lovingly at Loren with her brown puppy eyes.
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of January 26, 2020
Failure is necessary. It helps us learn and grow. It keeps us humble. But there exists one unredeemable failure, which is having untied shoelaces past the age of seven.
The Overbearing Weight of the Opinions of Everybody Else About You
Get rid of social media. It is built for this sorbet of bullying nonsense and is optimally utilized to make you feel like shit. You know that narcissistic boyfriend you finally managed to escape? That is Facebook and Twitter. They are your ex-boyfriend who gaslit you and told you you were fat or stupid or voted for the wrong person.
Hope Idiotic | Part 44
And there’s the biggest difference between us, Michelle. There’s the difference that should have kept us from maybe ever even becoming friends to begin with. Hope doesn’t mean anything. Hope is what people have or do when they can’t have or do anything else. Hope is inaction. It’s sitting back and just waiting for what you want to come. It’s hoping for everything to work out. It’s what we have when we feel we have nothing else. I don’t ever want to hope. I want to have. I want to try. And I’m okay if I fail. Hope won’t get anyone a goddamn thing. It never has, and it never will.”
The Minutes of Our Last Meeting | Donald John Trump Day
“Presidents Day will now be President’s Day. Did you hear the apostrophe in my voice?”
The Woke Are Activism Evolved
The best part about the art of the dialectic is that, by participating, one must pull the head from the ass of emotional attachment to opinions held deeply and look hard at those beliefs. Effectively, you gotta argue with yourself and, because it’s you battling your own shit, honesty is the default (if you do it correctly).
Trip Report | Day 5: Monument Valley, Utah
Some national parks are dog-friendly; Arches is not one of them. Dogs are allowed in the parking lots only. So our plan to hike there and appreciate some arches devolved into Dave and Nola waiting in the parking lot while I went and looked at an arch, then came back to wait with Nola while Dave went to look at an arch. Except then he got a nosebleed so we just left.
![I Believe… [The Social Media Blackout AI]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/579fa3912994ca0eff850271/1579843431947-QENZB907O1ZS20O11OH0/IMG_2541.jpeg)
I Believe… [The Social Media Blackout AI]
I believe… that Facebook and Twitter should have an AI that prevents the posting of false information, rebukes bullying of any sort, and immediately deletes complaints of persecution. In an instant social media would be rid of Trump, Fox News, twenty-year-old women of all races, and the Woke.
...that intense and deep aren’t the same thing even if you’ve convinced yourself they are. Intense is momentary and fleeting; deep is the result of time and energy.