My Year Without a Car

It’s coming up on one year without owning an operational car. These are some of my initial reflections on the experiment. As I am settling into my new identity as a single man living alone for the first time in his entire life, there are certain opportunities that I can take that I have never …

A Slow Drip of Dopamine

I listened to a fascinating interview with Anna Lembke on the Art of Manliness podcast. She is Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic at Stanford University. She was speaking about her book, Dopamine Nation. I was surprised at what I learned. It’s an oversimplification of her premise, but she explains how and …

10 Songs That Saved My Life

The title may seem hyperbolic. Did these songs literally stop me from going off the deep end? Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows. It doesn’t matter. What matters is how these songs intersected my story in a timely fashion and deposited a word of truth into my heart that could not have otherwise found its way …

Behavior I Don’t Understand

I had an interesting opportunity to observe amusing human behavior yesterday. My last remaining and fully operational CD player, aka The Kia, decided to shut down in the left turn lane of a major intersection here in town. It went dead suddenly, nothing, kaput. Even the emergency flashers didn’t work. As they say where I’m …

The Place I Want To Be

When I was 9 years old, my father wanted to take us as a family to visit his sister, who lived in Bermuda at the time.  I credit my dad’s willingness to take advantage of moments like this that has shaped me into his mini-me. He lived by this philosophy, “stop and smell the roses …

Making Room For Loneliness

In a session with The Keyholder, she asked about loneliness and what I do when I feel lonely. I replied back very confidently, ”I don’t allow it.” Her face had that look that indicated I had said something profound, and her slight grin indicated a playfulness guarded by a professional demeanor.  Channeling her inner Tyler …