Metaphysical Furniture

  One of the workshops I teach in my day job centers on having the conversations that matter because ignoring them is disservice to your relationships. This means having the tough conversations about the uncomfortable things in our lives and work. These conversations can happen in life's small moments with people we trust. The key is opening our minds and hearts to what those around us have to offer. I thought a lot about this idea in Shinking , Apple TV's dramadey about a grieving psychologist, Jimmy (Jason Segel), who decides to tell his patients exactly what he thinks about their situation. For example, he tells a woman that her husband is an emotionally abusive narcissist and she'd be better off without him. His colleagues are wary of this approach, especially his curmudgeon mentor, Paul (Harrison Ford). Paul tells Jimmy this needs to stop, that he is involving himself too much in his patients' lives. Paul particularly hates that Jimmy has allowed a patient to move ...

40 years ago this week I had no plan. No vision. No destiny. My high school graduation loomed on the horizon, mere weeks away. Four years of classes, books, and avoiding homework would end abruptly. Nothing left to do but ponder what the hell came next. Except I didn't ponder that at all, choosing instead to retreat into an existential funk likely induced from having seen The Breakfast Club for the third time. Friends were heading off to college and writing the next chapter of their life. Meanwhile, I still hadn't even begun an outline of my next chapter. It was a blank page. This wasn't surprising to me considering I spent my high school days avoiding homework until the absolute last second. Winging it. Improvising. Living in the moment and responding to it. My life was an embodiment of  "yes, and..." This felt right since I was a drama kid. An actor. I also fancied myself an aspiring writer. If I could attach a dream to my future at that age, it would be one whe...

 Last June, I opened up a brand new Moleskine journal I had bought for myself on vacation and wrote this: Approximately five months later, I wrote this in that same Moleskine journal: One of my true regrets in my life is not having kept a regular journal. Oh, I have volumes of notebooks filled with scribbles but those are mostly devoted to story ideas and lists. Much of the space in those notebooks is devoted to rough drafts of scenes for a novel or script in drafting. There is value in that, of course, but it isn't what I would call true journaling. I've read several articles and blog posts about the benefits of journaling. Some common themes in those readings include better mental and emotional health, reduced overthinking and brooding, expanding creative thought, and developing a mindset of gratitude.  I'm terrible at that kind of journaling. The worst. I've tried but always get bogged down in my own desire to be brilliant. Whenever I sit down to write anything - an...

  NOTE: Periodically on this new blog, I will repost some of my favorites from the old one, Upstream of Consciousness. I hesitate to call them 'greatest hits' because that assumes some level of popularity that this never achieved. Instead, I'll simply call them The Old Ones.  The first of The Old Ones is inspired by yesterday's Ted Lasso post . In it, I referenced that I, at the time of writing, I had yet to watch 'Breaking Bad.' This brought some good-natured ribbing from friends and family. This post is inspired by that relentless peer pressure to just watch the damn show already. 'Peer Pressure' was originally posted on June 19, 2014. I'm happy to report that I eventually did binge 'Breaking Bad' and 'Better Call Saul' (which I preferred). ****** PEER: Hey, man. You ever smoke filter-less Camels? ME: Yes, once. I didn't like it. PEER: You should try it again, man. It's awesome. ME: No, thank you. PEER: That's cool. Car...

NOTE: A couple of times on the old blog I posted thoughts after bingeing a TV series. I called it "Binge &  Purge." I thought I'd bring the concept to this new space. What follows here is not so much a review of a show's quality, but how it left me feeling in this moment in my life. If you've not watched "Ted Lasso," be warned. Mild spoilers lie ahead. ***** Ted Lasso operates from the theory that we're all dealing with something and only through meaningful human relationships can we adequately overcome it. Sometimes you need to watch a show at just the right time to fully appreciate it. We were late to the party on Ted Lasso. There is only so much room on my plate for the buffet of streaming services. Apple TV+ was not an investment I had made much to the chagrin of those who implored me to watch Ted Lasso. Not wanting to repeat the peer pressure that came with not watching Breaking Bad , we borrowed our son's Apple TV+ subscription and dove...

I know what you’re thinking. Does the word need another blog? Another voice whispering into a hurricane? Something else to subscribe to? The answer to those questions is “no.” Yet, here I am. Some unseen force compels me to do this like the creepy entity communicating with Lottie in the wilderness in “Yellowjackets.” courtesy of giphy I’ve had two blogs. The first one, Upstream of Consciousness , ran from 2010-2017. The other was on the author website I launched in 2018 to draw people to my self-published novel. I ended the website (RIP) at the beginning of 2024 in an effort to…well, what exactly? As a writer, finding a place to establish myself has proved challenging. Hindsight being what it is and all, ending Upstream of Consciousness seems like a bad idea. I had established a whole vibe there. A voice. The author site was an attempt to create a brand but that fell flat. Marketing yourself in a world filled with so many others doing the same is hard work. The truth is, though, I like...