NOTHING IS SOMETHING I've written here before about not being able to write. How it can feel frustrating, liberating, stuck, or a movement. And for whatever reason this month, I had nothing. Actually I had something, but that something took priority over the rush of energy I usually have for writing. Instead of making time for writing this month, I've been skateboarding. A lot. And it has been fun. Not in the same way that writing feeds me, but, I am fed nonetheless. And learning to understand what had been a very dormant part of me, an athlete. And the full I get from moving my body is very different than how it feels to be satisfied by using...
POTATO CHIPS I LOVE potato chips. It's kind of my thing. And when it comes to food I don't really have that many things. Truth be told, I'm not really that into food. When I have money to spend, it is not at a restaurant or on an exotic fruit or unexpected flavor of ice cream. I like clothes, jewelry, music, midcentury chairs, and potato chips. I first became hooked on potato chips while living in Ireland, where salt + vinegar flavors are the norm. I still love the tangy bite of a good salt + vinegar chip, but these days I'm more of a purest. Give me twice fried flat or deep ridges with a sprinkle of...
THIS THING CALLED SCHOOL “We are not a security force in any way, we are just fathers who are changing the narrative on campus.” - Michael La’Fitte II The above quote might just be the best thing that has been said all week. For JOY listeners and for you, my newsletter friends, this week is dedicated to exploring the IDEA of school. Musician Bono from U2 has a well known quote about America. He says something to the effect that America is not a place, but an idea. And I think we have reached the point where the same holds true for school. Schools have wandered greatly from the purpose to educate. Education is something that can...
Samantha and I were introduced by a mutual friend earlier this year. Our first conversation was via email and I could tell how we were racing to respond back and forth with each other, we already felt like old friends. Add to our easy back and forth a shared history at RISDI and I felt like Samantha knew a part of me that comes from deep within. For both of us, going to art school was a revolutionary act. One that continues to inform our lives in ways we have yet to discover. There are few people who can understand the obsession of spending an entire summer drawing cross sections of broccoli. Or can remember the smell of the...
The day we left what was to be our final San Francisco city home, the tree that stood for over a century outside of our door, collapsed. As we approached our new exit off 101 I received a phone call from our now former neighbor. “We are sad to see you go, but your tree, it just couldn’t withstand the grief. It just fell over Lisa. You drove away and it fell. Just like that.” I asked whether anyone was hurt, or if the tree had reached across the street and touched the edges of our neighbor's driveway. “No,” she said. “It just kind of fell in on top of itself.” I understood the despair of the tree. I...
