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“We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.”
— Fred Rogers
Mar 10, 2025
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Not everybody gets one but when you do, you know. It's also worth finding them and letting them know they were good. Guaranteed way to make someone's day
Feb 8, 2024
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such an honor and a joy
— look around, there’s opportunity to do this everywhere
Oct 19, 2024
“The world is so distressing and cruel right now, especially with what our leaders are saying, it’s almost like comedy and joy is like a flower that needs to be cared for, and it needs to be in a peaceful garden where someone is watering it and taking care of it. I think the answer is empathy, getting people to recognize what binds all human beings together, regardless of their economic status or their race or where they have come from or where they are going, empathy is what is going to get us out of the mess that we are currently in.”
I said that a few years ago to an interviewer. It holds very true today. Empathy is not overrated. It’s what will make you a better person.
The Union Station organization helps the homeless and that’s a good place to start. Pay it forward. One day you might need some kindness.
Feb 3, 2025
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I’m not a parent and do not plan to be. Kids can wear me out fast with their high energy and noise level; it leaves me very over-stimulated. But it’s pretty extreme when people say they ”hate kids” and I often feel it’s a reflection of their childhood and beliefs around how kids “should be.” That they were expected to be quiet, obedient, and out of the way by their parents when they were little.
It’s fucking hard to be a kid. You’re dealing with a rapidly-changing body and underdeveloped brain, managed by flawed adults who are enforcing boundaries that you do not understand. It’s confusing and hard to manage your feelings and honestly just a lot.
People are impatient with kids when they‘re brand new to the world and figuring it all out, and this is a time kids need a friend the most. Children can also be teachers to adults with how they are less habituated to the world. They teach us how to be free and open-hearted and silly and imaginative.
A good practice is to be kinder and gentler with kids. If that feels difficult, start with gentleness toward your inner child. Maybe that’s the child in your life that needs your attention and kindness most.
Apr 16, 2025
I meant to post this yesterday. Absolutely beautiful morning for walk.
This morning is also beautiful but in a spring rain kind of way.
Mar 23, 2025
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Prescriptive gender is a prison. Rather than gender being a form of self-expression, gender is treated as a pass/fail test for how well you can conform to cultural expectations.
Since I was young, I remember feeling a great deal of pressure to conform to these expectations around what “men” are meant to be. You like sports, cars, womanizing, aggression, and not having feelings. I felt so distant from this ideal. I was sensitive and shy, and I preferred spending my time being creative in some way
For a long time, I felt like I was failing at “being a man.” In many ways I was! Because I didn’t need to bea man. All I needed to be was myself.
It’s taken me a long time to separate myself from prescriptive gender, sharpening in on which aspects of masculine energy I identify with and which I don’t. I’m not done yet. Maybe I will never fully be. The self continues to evolve over time, and I suspect aspects of my gender will too.
Mar 15, 2025