Hello friends, While vending at Punk Rock Pride last month, something on the pebble dash sidewalk caught my attention. It was a safety pin. I smiled, because safety pins are a hallmark of old school punk. They were a way to keep clothing together even if you didn’t know how to sew. Safety pins were handy for attaching patches and badges to jackets. Best of all? They lacked the respectability of neatly mended clothes. Safety pins could also be seen to represent the fierce way community holds...
14 days ago • 1 min read
Hello friends, There are a wide variety of humans, but today I’m thinking about two basic types. There are the people who take themselves out of the picture. Write themselves out of the story. Slink to the edges of the frame. Others take center stage at all times. They fill the image, crowding out or overshadowing those around them. These people are the stars of the show, and the only Main Characters. But here’s the thing: no matter what our tendencies or training, we would all do well to...
21 days ago • 1 min read
Hello friends, I wrote this week’s newsletter in advance, because I’m camping with no cell service. It’s so good for my psyche to disconnect from electronics, stare at mountains, and walk along streams for a week. I’m a mind-racer, and this disconnection—like meditation or prayer—helps slow me down inside. The meditation on nature is always a gift to me, even in the small city where I live. For example, on the summer solstice, it was cool enough for me to take a long afternoon walk. I headed...
28 days ago • 1 min read
Hello friends, It’s Pride weekend, and I’m thinking of all the brave people who fought so hard to be allowed to simply exist. And I think of those who are still fighting, myself included. Do we want to fight? No. We’d rather just live our lives, do our work, laugh with friends, raise families, read books, and tend our gardens. Just like immigrants and other people under attack do. “The first Pride was a riot,” it is often said, and whether something is called a riot or an uprising depends on...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hello friends, The yuccas are in full bloom right now, with dense clusters of creamy blossoms heavy as bells on tall stalks. This type of yucca is a spiky, unassuming plant when not in bloom, and then _bam_there is an astonishing wealth of flowers. While walking to a writing date the other week, I paused at a large grouping of these flowering plants, growing on the edge of a parking lot behind a chain link fence. The blossoms were buzzing with the activity of industrious bees. I paused a...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hello friends, James Baldwin is one of my favorite writers. He was also a massively intelligent and cogent thinker, who held great insight into the human condition. Baldwin saw in us a breathtaking capacity for love, he also gazed unflinchingly at the worst parts of humanity, mostly our bigotry and greed. Along with his writing, teaching, and activism, Baldwin fought for a life in which he had time and space to do the deep thinking that gave rise to his insights. He also danced with friends,...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Hello friends, “The search for love continues even in the face of great odds” the paper stapled to the battered wood of a utility pole read. I paused en route to lunch with an old friend to ponder the message. I am not certain whether the person who made the sign referred to the personal, intimate, partnership type of love, or the love of friends or family, or some other kind of love. But the reason the sign made me pause is that to me, it spoke of hope. Odds seem stacked against us. Rights...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Hello friends, What happens when we’re not inspired? Or worse, what happens when we’re downtrodden, or exhausted, or want to give up? Well… Rest is always a good option when we can make space for it. Refilling the well is another strategy: going for a walk, reading a novel, listening to music, sitting under a tree, watching a movie, meditating… Other times, we have to adult, don’t we? The thing I’ve learned though, is that adulting goes better if I don’t carry the attitude that this sucks and...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Hello friends, There I was, on our tiny back mud porch—earbuds in, writing business podcast queued up—putting my boots on. A strange, metallic noise sounded from the back garden. I looked up. A crow was at the birdbath. Not the source. I shrugged, slung my bag with my writing paraphernalia over my shoulder, pressed play on the podcast, and stepped out. The strange sound cut through the podcast voices. Pulling an earbud out, I found the source: a squirrel on the fence, busily grabbing,...
2 months ago • 1 min read