Essays
Wordle is unique in that it’s an addiction you can’t indulge to your detriment.
Joplin blew out a hit. The smoke hung and twisted in the sunlight, and he studied it there, looking for an answer or sign.
The other day I drove over to the bank and closed my one and only credit account. I was inspired by Daniel Suelo.
I don’t know how best to tell you this, but you’re wrong. You’re wrong about me, and I fear you are wrong about the world.
Michael Pollan’s contribution to the psychedelic renaissance reinforces the very power structures that the countercultural psychonauts opposed.
A life unfolds in weeks, days, seconds, even infinitesimal moments. But it's made sense of and recalled in chapters. And chapters span years.
I presented the following speech at UVU's My Word!, a ceremony that celebrates student art and writing as published in the English department's journals.
This essay is for anyone in recovery who senses that sometimes it's the people who want the best for us that hold us down.
The first rule is to know that you will die and, barring a house fire, your photos will not.
There's a popular story going 'round that sounds something like this: excellence is achieved by doing one thing well.
People have been teasing cats with cucumbers. According to some, if you laughed at these felines’ expense, you’re wrongheaded. And if you went so far as to sic a cucumber on your cat, just to see what would happen, you might even be sociopathic.
Meditation has inspired me to "let go." But how can I engage the good fight if I give in?
Adulthood is often marked by a zombie-like dance between meaningless work and just as meaningless entertainment. But youth is alive. That's why we must fight to stay young.
Nearly every artist dreams of being well-known. But holding onto this dream makes creative work a nightmare. To recoup the dividends of art, we must move beyond desires for fame and fortune.
A 20-year-old vagabond, misfit, poet and artist stamps his soul on letters sent home before disappearing forever.
If Plato were alive today, he might be a hipster. He’d have the beard, for sure; he’d challenge ideas coming from institutions and people in authority; and he’d likely embrace a life of minimalism.
The moments we want to catch are rare not only because the event is rare, but because the event in combination with the right lighting is. In fact, the thing we look for, the thing we're chasing, is light.
As a kid, I was a bit of a rebel. And I believed I was this way because there was something wrong with me. At least, that's what they told me. Well they were wrong. They were wrong about me, and they're wrong about you.
People often want to change the world because they want to be recognized for doing so. That's not to say they don't have good motives, too. But those who really make a difference in the world aren't motivated by the idea of being admired.
My grandfather, just before leaving life at the age of 94, left these parting words of advice: Be kind to everyone. These four words, reflecting the wisdom of a century of living, now hang as an epitaph on my mother's living room wall. Seems simple enough.
Last weekend I was shuttled to Las Vegas for a conference and I unexpectedly learned a lesson in compassion.
My pipemaking is informed by a few principles, which I have arrived at after dabbling in the craft over the past few years.