Writing
A Grammar Crisis
A friend pulled me into a marital dispute which is a precarious place to be and in ordinary circumstances I recommend avoiding this at all costs, but this dispute was a grammar one and so I had no choice. I had to weigh in. The dispute was over whether or not it was kosher to begin a (…)
Going On a Newsletter Sabbatical
Over the last 5 years, few things have brought me more joy than these Thursdays with you. Our debates about what is or isn’t true, the safe container to think in public, the testing of ideas. I love being in the public sphere and you have given me the space to do what I love: (…)
Putting Creative Dreams On Hold
Right now, many people I love are being forced to put their creative ambitions on hold. Everyone is dealt a different deck of cards and a lot of really awesome humans have been dealt a shit deck of cards. And I don’t think it does us any favors to ignore this. Sometimes circumstances ARE a (…)
The Nonsense Gap
It is impossible for me to watch Particle Fever without crying. Particle Fever is my favorite documentary about the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle. You can watch it on Netflix. Peter Higgs is a theoretical physicist who published his theory predicting the existence of the Higgs particle in 1967. It took 45 years before (…)
How Was Your Day?
Why do we insist on the question: “How was your day?” I know it’s a colloquialism. I know it’s intended as an exchange of pleasantries, where I say: “Fine!” “Well!” “Doin’ alright, how ‘bout yourself?” Then you say, “Good!” and we move on. It’s an exercise in acknowledgment, which I believe in. But, occasionally, someone asks it (…)
On The Absence Of Art
I cannot understand the world’s desire to “speed read.” My preference is to slow it down, sit with an idea and let it marinate a little. More often, however, I get taken hostage by words. I cannot get beyond a paragraph because the words render me powerless to turn the page until I contend with them. (…)
Time To Think
It started as an ordinary discussion of books and life, but ended (naturally) with a fight about Emily Dickinson. Not the Dickinson you remember from high school, the one on Apple TV (featuring Wiz Khalifa as death and John Mulaney as Thoreau. I KNOW RIGHT.). In the show, teenage Emily refuses to participate in household (…)
Hold The Vision
There are two parallel universes emerging right now. One living in and with a pandemic and one merely annoyed by it. Day after day I get messages from friends and readers whose lives have been turned upside-down, while their newsfeeds boast of an unaffected population, still going to clubs and birthday parties and vacations to (…)