The elevator opens and I see a man holding a boxcutter. He's flipping it open and closed as he cusses at someone through his airpods. His construction vest didn’t cover the tattoos on his sunburnt neck. We made eye contact as I passed him to get to my room. The glance was brief, but I think he could feel I thought his cursing, his volume, and his boxcutter were in bad taste. His glance back was a mildly confused hostility. An image of him lunging to cut me and my elbow breaking his nose...
11 days ago • 5 min read
Around 10, I started having a recurring nightmare. I’m in the passenger seat of a car. I’m looking out the window and I see we are driving along a mountain’s edge. I can see a thousand feet above ground. Fear begins framing everything. I look to the driver seat, expecting to see my dad, seeking reassurance.No one is there.No one is driving the car.My fear peaks into terror.I wake up panicked. I don’t know if it a false memory, but I recall waking up in my baby sister’s room. It’s the middle...
18 days ago • 15 min read
Being an artist means getting away with it. Carl Jung was an artist who got away with being a prophet. In October of 1913, Jung started having a recurring apocalyptic dream. I saw a monstrous flood covering all the northern and low-lying lands between the North Sea and the Alps. When it came up to Switzerland I saw that the mountains grew higher and higher to protect our country. I realized that a frightful catastrophe was in progress. I saw the mighty yellow waves, the floating rubble of...
25 days ago • 12 min read
Did you know your name is guiding your life? A 2002 study, delightfully called “Why Susie Sells Seashells by the Seashore: Implicit Egotism and Major Life Decisions,” found that we’re more likely to marry people who’s name start with the same consonant as ours, Louis is more likely to move to St. Louis, and Dennis is more likely to become a dentist. It’s worth noting that the effect size is small, but it is higher than chance. Hilariously, if you want to believe telepathy is real, the...
about 1 month ago • 8 min read
I hear birds singing, and trees swaying outside my window, and I want to talk about the apocalypse. I can cover rent for the next year, and our home is filled with love, and I want to talk about the death and the madness. I get invited to another party, another ceremony, another birthday. I don't go. I want to contemplate the suicides and schizophrenia. He's back. He wants to flare fangs and rip out my throat when I watch 3 hours of Netflix. He wants to spit in the face of the limp majority...
about 2 months ago • 7 min read
I've been sick the last few days. Fever got to 102.0. It's been a few years since I've really been ill. I rarely get sick, and while that might seem good, it means I have bad habits when I do (insert man becomes baby when sick meme). If you're reading my newsletter, hopefully you've heard of the Shimmer Effect. Hopefully you're aware that the task of our time is to reclaim our attention from the dopamine dealers we call Instagram, Slack, Youtube, and yes, even email. Hopefully you're aware...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Announcement: I'm hosting a free webinar on Tuesday at 12pm, CST. It'll be dope. -- -- -- “I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”-E.W.White Theres a struggle in me between the buddha and the revolutionary. On one hand, I see The Wasteland. Nearly half our country is obese. 300 million people worldwide are diagnosed with Depression. Millions are taking anti-anxiety medication...
2 months ago • 6 min read
I had a dream last night that I was in a movie theater with some friends. The movie had ended, and in order to leave, we had to jump into a black pit. Dream logic being what it is, I trusted this and jumped into the blackness. After the 2nd second ticked by, I start thinking to myself... "wow, this is deeper than I thought." 3rd second passes. Still falling. "oh boy this might hurt." 4th second expires. Still falling. "wow, what is this?" Then I wake up. -- -- -- It's been 80 something days...
3 months ago • 3 min read
I wrote an article this week that I think is one of the most pragmatic and meaningfully applicable things I've created in awhile. It's called How I've written an article (almost) every week for 10 years. I've used the frame and game I share in that article for the last 10 years. It's how I write these newsletters. This is how I planted seeds a decade ago that now feeds you, me, and one day, my kids. Also, my next Mentally Fit class is open for enrollment. The first 3 classes sold out (big...
3 months ago • 1 min read