Maybe It Isn't Anger. Maybe It's Grief.
Sara Bareilles realized she was carrying grief for her country and wrote a song about it. Stephen Colbert says anger is armor against what we actually feel. Put those together and the thing everyone calls anger starts to look like something else.
Let's Talk About Grief
A Pearl Jam concert and a Sara Bareilles concert could not look more different. I’ve been to both and found they were doing the identical thing. That sent me down a road about how small a definition of grief most of us are working with.
The Ring Isn't a Signal, It's a Reminder
A foggy morning, a wedding ring, and a question I couldn't put down. What are the small things we carry, and what do they pull us back to?
What Is Suffering?
I always thought suffering was something other people did. Then a friend who spent his life in ministry asked a question that reframed forty years of my own.
So Much More Than the Worst Thing
On August 14, FROM WITHIN closed at Curtis Memorial Library. A boy of about 7 looked at paintings made inside a Virginia prison and said he couldn’t believe prisoners made them. We learn pretty early how we are supposed to think about certain people.
A Love Letter to Curtis Memorial Library
A crowd packed into Curtis Memorial Library to watch someone cut a ribbon. For a lobby. Not a new wing. Not a new building. A lobby. That's when it hit me how much of my life has happens inside that place. So, I wrote it a love letter.
They Weren’t My Stories
My friend Jonathan lost his hearing the same season he lost his wife. He chose not to be bitter, because bitterness would mean living a life that wasn’t his.
Sharing Cake at Cocoa Cinnamon
A Haitian saying from Lynne Twist’s The Soul of Money sent me into a Durham, NC coffee shop with a question. What happens when you ask three strangers to share a snack and a conversation with you? The first Sharing Cake story.
The Sunset Service
Every Friday and Saturday evening at Playa Carmen, the town empties out and thousands of people walk toward the water. Nobody organized it. It just happens. A surfer named Tony taught me what it looks like to be in relationship with a place instead of just passing through.
What it Means to be Wild at Heart
Two books about wildness, cages, and freedom. One replaces the box with a different box. The other says the butterfly blueprint is already inside you. Purple nail polish, six-foot waves, and the case for living as your whole self.
FROM WITHIN: An Art Show Born from an Unlikely Friendship
What happens when a white guy from Maine who went to Bowdoin College and a Black man from Brooklyn who went to prison decide to create something together? A pop-up art show called FROM WITHIN.
What You Learn About Love When It Gets Taken Away: A Campfire Conversation with Sam Harris
Sam Harris spent 25 years in prison. When he came home, the first thing he noticed wasn't how much the world had changed. It was how much angrier it had gotten.
What You Leave Behind
Last year I took energy from Costa Rica and brought it home. The flow only went one way. This year I wanted to leave something behind. What happened when I did surprised me.
The Story of Men, or at Least the One We Built
It took me six months to finish a podcast literally called Men. While on an adventure about men. When I finally circled back, I realized the drift might be the most interesting part of the story.
What Happens When You Give Up a Table?
I gave up a table at a coffee shop in Rockledge, Florida. That small choice led to a three-hour conversation about God, fear, love, and choice with three strangers who became friends.
The Common Thread: Systems Designed to Disconnect
Healthcare, capitalism, prisons, education. I didn't set out to find a common thread. But one keeps showing up. These systems disconnect us from the things that make us whole.
The Cool Air of What Seems True: A Campfire Conversation with John Biewen
John Biewen is the host of Scene on Radio, one of the most important podcast series I've encountered. Sitting across a campfire from him was surreal. He didn't let me stay comfortable.
The Fire of Truth
A family friend made a claim during a car ride about immigration that didn't sound right. Instead of arguing, I did what the adventure has been teaching me: check the facts before reacting.
When Love Becomes Resistance: A Campfire Conversation with Kharma Amos
Kharma Amos is a UU minister who came out in 1990s Tulsa, Oklahoma. This Campfire Conversation explored queering as a verb, the fear of freedom, and why love sometimes looks like resistance.
The History of Money: The Long Story
This is the deep dive companion to my piece asking "What is Money?" It traces 5,000 years of monetary history from Mesopotamian clay tablets to modern fiat currency, with 52 citations.