Category: Uncategorized

  • #16 Shut up & win

    #16 Shut up & win

    Steel your mind. Disassociate. Observe your emotions instead of living them. It doesn’t sound like living, does it? It did not to me. I avoided it like a four year-old confronted with a bath. For a very long time. The concept of using my noggin in an entirely different manner was not something I could…

  • #15 – What does it mean that i love this coffee?

    #15 – What does it mean that i love this coffee?

    Front Range Coffee – located in Kansas City (or one of it’s “boroughs” or whatever, it’s all the same). That’s the setting, a corner coffee store in what looks to be an up-and-coming area of boujee-ness. The signs inside are carved wood with painted letters, like what you see in a national park. The seating…

  • #14 – language

    #14 – language

    Language In 2005, I was interning in Washington, DC. It was a happening time, as Hurricane Katrina had just landed in New Orleans. To me, however, I was more interested in something else. John Roberts was going through confirmation hearings to become the chief justice of the Supreme Court. Each day I walked past Supreme…

  • #13 Existential

    #13 Existential

    Existential I keep looking at the word. Looking up the definition. “Grounded in existence or the experience of existence, having being in time and space.” I sit at a desk in my childhood room. Back on the farm again, for a week. Processing. The last sixteen months…what a ride. Walking away from a secure, comfortable…

  • #12 Love & Ignorance

    #12 Love & Ignorance

    Mastery is elusive. I’ve mastered nothing. Thirty-nine years of life. I cook well enough not to starve. I code at a beginner’s beginner level. At best I’m a B minus singer, B songwriter, and D guitarist, and I think that’s being generous. As a writer, I can put words together that occasionally make sense. But…

  • #11

    #11

    Worth his weight in “cerda” Raindrops tapped gently on my improvised cocoon. Inside I held the sides of the double-wide hammock together with one arm, giving no concern. The skies were clear to the north and east. Over two months living in the mountains taught me rain emanated from this direction. I continued reading, engrossed…

  • #10

    #10

    Mountain music Through the glass I observed the focus. Dripping delicious tones, the Headrush amp & pedal combined with a Fender Jaguar to release something…something that felt right for the moment. Edison bulbs hung with reverence and cast a deceptive glow. Everything lit, nothing bright. Six hours of rain had recently ended, and the fresh…

  • #9

    The Regal “Chivas” Dripping with bling only Xzibit could love, and loaded to within an inch of collapse with passengers, produce, dry goods – and occasionally livestock – the “Chivas” are the literal bright spot of Colombian highways. These snort-y, snout-y old Chevys evoke a vibe somewhere in-between Woodstock and Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. They are the star…

  • #8

    “Carne, por favor. Mucho carne” I stealthily approach from the west, hugging storefronts to stay in the shadows, keeping a wary eye out for the guy who offered my ayahuasca from behind a barred storefront last week. Head down, purposefully walking, I’ve no desire to catch eyes with the waiter who likes to stand out…

  • #7

    Young Love in a Small Town Freshly-showered, he sits casually askew in a chair drug into the open storefront. Half-in, half-out, the location is perfect for his purpose. It’s shaded, has an open view of traffic crossing by six feet away in either direction, and – most importantly – a sly glance over the left…