Dear _____,
You are changing. In some ways, you are blooming–becoming what you always knew you would. Except, you didn’t know precisely what that would look like or even what it was, just that you would become. So no, you’re not becoming what you always know you would, you’re becoming as you always knew you would.
You […]

A man approached me to explain something important.
He had been experiencing reality on a different plane, where his ultimate self had been freed from the layers of identity that usually served as shelter. Earlier, some kids had been throwing rocks and one almost pelted his face. He had no reaction. So absorbed was he in […]

Last Friday I hitchhiked from Madison to Minneapolis. I have too many stories, too many reflections to offer all at once. For now, here is a sketch of the first person to pick me up.

Mark is tough. He knows this. He grew up white in the Boston projects where he “learned a healthy respect for […]

Traveling broke takes more work. Today I dropped cash on new bearings for the hubs on my bike, but only spent $1.06 on food. Before that, I tried to case all the places that sell bread, but almost everyone was roundabout in telling me they didn’t trash expired stuff. I don’t know if they knew […]

This city has a different pulse than Chicago. It’s not working as hard. When I pass by, I don’t catch the reek of sweat, don’t see the pit stains, don’t hear the grunts. Madison is daydreaming. Its heartbeat is slow, and its breaths are deep. It floats along.
There was a time when I would do […]

On my way to Minneapolis. For a wedding, and conveniently timed to give me space to reflect.
The past several days have been filled with disorienting and powerful interactions that had just begun hinting at normalcy, and now I will jet from the familiar-unfamiliar to land in a soup of dichotomies: concrete and flesh, tears and […]

Here we are: orphans of truth in a society that continually casts meaning aside. We felt something inexplicable–a sense of purpose like a relic of childhood–a trailing cloud of glory that began fading long ago. Yet as we grew we could not ignore a sense of mystery shrouded beneath the rules and the routines. We […]

The next day is always rough, but I have never regretted staying up all night lost in conversation.

I found this picture on Flickr and was fascinated. How does it make you feel to look at this? Can you stare at the bottom right one long enough to convince yourself you are looking at a man? Then look back to the top left. Staring at this picture offers a small way to help […]

There was a time when I was ignorant of oppression; a blissful childhood spent aloof to the suffering in the world. My eyes began to open in my adolescence, and my identity shifted. Naively, I thought we could use the system’s own channels to reform and ameliorate oppressive conditions. I slowly became disillusioned with this […]