Category: Reflections
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Why do I write? Elie Wiesel asked that question once. His answer was that he wrote to free himself somewhat of his nightmares. I have no excuse for such nightmares, but a much more subtle ‘night’ surrounds me, everything is so dark, details obscured; it feels safe, yes, but I am never quite enlightened enough…
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We live in a world where a stolen credit card number can wreck your day by grinding everything to a halt. The worst part is that it’s often not clear how certain key information is leaked and even if the cause eventually is discovered it’s far too long after the fact to trace its original…
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These were written 2007/2008 and tinkered with over the past decade-plus. I didn’t really know where to publish them, so on Obscure Curiosities they went. I’ve tweaked a bit more in 2026, but for the most part, these are my original thoughts from the later years of my ill-fated “college experience.” I There is always…
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The thought occurred to me one day…maybe the big, tangled knot of the world’s troubles unravels down to something incredibly simple: people just won’t get out of each other’s way. Worse yet, we step on others’ ideas all the time, usually holding a watering can rather than wielding a club. What we mean to prune,…
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Music is a magical extension of the human soul. Without it, we’d all just slowly wither away into the unbearable void of silence, or worse, be left alone with our thoughts. With it, however, we have the unparalleled power to transform our minds into a war zone of emotions. Every single performance, even of a…
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Most of the things rattling around in our heads aren’t real. By “real,” I mean you can’t physically poke at them. Still, real or imagined, we love to give those intangible ideas a physical form. So, what do we do? We find a way to realize them by making these ideas into physical things so…
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“We also know how cruel the truth often is, and we wonder whether delusion is not more consoling.” – Henri Poincaré This observation by Henri Poincaré — later referenced by Carl Sagan in The Demon-Haunted World — hits harder today than perhaps either man intended. It suggests that delusion isn’t just an error in judgment,…
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I want to focus on writing “good stuff.” What exactly does that mean? Find a formula that works, or ride the tried-and-true train to the bank? No, I just want to sit there and write something, then at the end of the day I feel like I said something good. Every day is different and…
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I’m on a never-ending quest for turnkey phrases, those magical combinations of words that drive themselves relentlessly towards unique expressions of ideas and memories. Once assembled, they’ll propel themselves forward like an unstoppable freight train, hellbent on smashing writer’s block, becoming my guiding light into the elusive territory of original expression. Every time I think…
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There must be a purpose when you write. It shouldn’t only be the topic that you wish to cover. Some of the best writing that I’ve encountered, whether my own or others, was a product of simply writing for a purpose besides covering one or more specific things. There are so many things that deserve…
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Many creatives I’ve met and studied have outlined, sometimes well-practiced and even calculated, creative processes. My methods, or seeming lack thereof, are more like a bizarre brand of madness. The way my brain works, my creativity often latches onto a certain concept, then so much energy goes into analyzing that concept from a high-level philosophical…
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We are all born creative. Creativity is inherently what makes us human. If you solve a problem, you are creative. If you turn your idea into something that you can share with others all the better. Sometimes you feel compelled to create at the worst possible times. But, if you put it off too long…
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Perhaps if the story I tell is too fantastic, no one will believe it. I was always taught as a writer to be able to help the reader along to suspend their disbelief. Honestly, I look at the world around me and see plenty of things I can’t believe are true. Yet they are. I…
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Back in 2022, Substack writer Heath Racela got to meet legendary musician Ben Folds. Apparently, Folds holds master classes now, this one being in Concord, MA. The key take away that Heath mentioned in his write-up: “embrace the messiness of learning” Other keys: songs as a three-act story, “balance between the liberal and the practical”…
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“What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly…
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Many people are so scared to fail that they don’t even start. If you wait until everything is perfect before acting, then you will never succeed at anything. It may seem prudent to keep your confidence level high by giving up after your first attempt ends in failure. But, your chances of success aren’t much…
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Whether it is expressed through words or pictures, artistry thrives, no matter what the medium. Like other forms of art, writing cannot be perfect; this does not mean it cannot be a work of beauty in its own right. Everyone has their own personal style to everything they do – whether you’re speaking aloud or…
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In my college years, I often lamented at length in my journals about so-called higher education being rarely more than an extension of high school. On some rare occasions, a professor would present more advanced and challenging material, but those happenings were few and far between. I was thinking about what my first class would…
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I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in the entertainment industry. It’s not really a novel realization, and it’s been hit on by quite a few critics and commentators, but it’s really beginning to bother me. Human creativity seems to be waning in such a dramatic way in recent years. There are so many formulaic attempts at…
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Illusions of success, or perhaps even delusions of success, have become the key reason that most talented individuals find themselves in dead-end avenues of employment or must struggle as “starving artists” in an attempt to get by. The issue is not in having employment where you have to answer to a boss or going to…