We are all at the same time beautifully unique and completely interdependent. Everything that makes up “me” is an external element, so “I” is nothing but the aggregate of things that “I” is not. What, then, is the self? From this arises the Buddhist doctrine of non-self. The individual is like a wave rolling up […]

Coming back is always a pensive affair. I feel a sense of loss.
Life is fast. We are so comfortable with the blur of speed that when we stop for a moment clear vision seems to us distorted: surprise trips to the emergency room, little betrayals we failed to anticipate, moving on after a struggle, holding […]

Last night I dreamed I was back in Chicago. It was dusk and I was walking in the loop. I was supposed to meet up with a group, but I knew they would take a while, so I just started walking. Three blocks passed without notice. I found myself on East Wacker overlooking the purple […]

I’m reading tons of old emails and thinking, Do we ever really change? I keep finding evidence that my character hasn’t changed, it has just unfolded. I’m remembering when I was thirteen and I got mad at Mark for not figuring out how he was going to get home from a Boy Scout event so that […]

The other night we went up to the Haight to catch a movie at a worker-owned theater. Having arrived early, we pulled out the footbag.
A few different folks joined us and we had a good-sized circle when a passing hipster wanted in. He stayed for two or three serves, thanked us for the game, and […]

This post marks the end of the first unofficial jackvalentine.net hiatus and the beginning of my time in San Francisco. Here’s a rough breakdown of the past six weeks:

57% idle time in Chicago with excitement for the move at a stalemate with the tedium of last days; no energy to write
28% traveling through the midwest […]

Minneapolis. Dinkytown. Espresso Royale Cafe.
On the road–finally.
Starting to think all people are just manifestations of various archetypes; I swear I’ve met this one at least twice, and a couple first-time repeaters just walked by.
Meetings with old friends are as familiar and ephemeral as recurring dreams.
Am I as tough as I think I am? What’s […]

Seventeen days and counting until I begin the trip that will, a few weeks later, land me in Oakland. And I certainly am counting.
I’m in a lull I haven’t felt since last year before I moved to Chicago. I’m totally disconnected from this city, from these people, even from myself. All I do is wait. […]

Here’s a true story.
Nacho is an illegal immigrant–a squat forty year-old with a buzzed head, neat mustache and gold fillings. He works six days a week in a restaurant–a dishwasher during the week, and a line cook on the weekend. He is paid in cash. The last time he went home to see his wife […]

It’s like–the word is at our fingertips, but we’ll never grasp it. We can forgive ourselves in the middle of a midwest winter, when it’s enough to just survive. But summer is the time of times. Summer is when we live and love. Summer is when anything is possible.
Summer is half over. Time is flying. […]