“Hope springs from that which is right in front of us, which surprises us, and seems to work.” —Anne Lamott The thing about wonder, or rather our sense of wonder, is we usually start to lose it right around the time we’re shedding the last of our baby teeth. A few of us don’t, […]
Words From The Other Side
Moonlight Through the Pines
I always ignored the small things in life, pursued what I believed was philosophically relevant. Then a week ago, I had a major surgery. As I write this, there’s a small chance it could be cancer. I could still need further treatment. Doctors removed a mass as big as a newborn baby. Despite the small […]
Nature, Walk With Me
Talk to a friend if you’re feeling depressed, they say. Eat well, get enough sleep. Take a walk in nature. The closest I get to nature these days is in a nearby office park with some nice landscaping. I walk early in the morning, when the parking lot is empty. It’s mercifully quiet—once I get […]
The Thing About Forgiveness
“Everybody has their shit.” -Karen Stefano The thing about forgiveness is, without it, we’d all be screwed. True story. Think about it for a minute, or for or a second, if you can. Think about all those times you desperately needed forgiveness. Or maybe, if you’ve been on the opposite side—the one who has heroically […]
On Reading Challenges
On her Facebook page, author Ania Ahlborn confessed feeling baffled by people who read more than a dozen books a month. (Did you notice the name drop? Yeah, I don’t know her IRL, though.) Her “confusion” stems only partly from the mere fact of time and how does anyone have that much. Mostly, she wonders […]
An Open Letter to Literary Fiction Snobs
Dear Literary Fiction Snobs, How dare you? How fucking dare you? How dare you look down your noses at us humor writers and roll your eyes. How dare you whisper behind our backs — or say to our faces — about how our work is somehow less important than your touch-the-heart agony porn? I’m tired […]
