—I’M NOT PREACHING, I’M JUST TALKING

 

 

…When you think you’re good at something, don’t you just want to do it all the time?

 

…I’m not sure how much a good cry solves, but it feels important to do it every so often nonetheless.

 

…I wonder if Letterman’s jackets are still a thing in high school.

 

…I wonder how some people can change the commentary running through their head. What a gift that would be.

 

…“What are you so afraid of?” is something I’ve been asking myself for nearly a year now, and I still don’t know.

 

…It’s always best if I don’t read these back.

 

…“I don’t have to put up with this,” is true of most things, and yet we do it anyway most times. Especially after we’ve said it.

 

…“Muse” is a contrived artist term that I’d be embarrassed to use in a sentence out loud. Yet, I hear it all time.

 

…Having more books around than you’ll ever be able to read is like having something sacred stored in a Hope Chest. 

 

…I much prefer when they don’t write “President” before his name in news articles. I’d much prefer if …..

 

…“I write poetry for the same reason I live life—to see what unfolds.” Chrys Tobey

 

…Yes, Ted Bundy and Charles Manson were fascinating characters, but do we really need more films about either one?

 

…“What’s not to like?” becomes a humorous question when asked from someone you’d least expect.

 

…Someone in a position of power, with influence, should try tackling the subject of bullying. Oh, wait…

 

…There’s so much rain in the backyard that ducks were floating around the blueberry bushes. Really, they were. Kinda cute.  

 

…Even now I’d love to have washboard abs, but the truth is I’m too lazy.

 

…As long as it’s said authentically, no one gets tired of hearing nice things about themselves.

 

…All my friends have books out now, and that makes me happy.

 

…This’ll be my first AWP sober with the young bucks. Should be interesting.

 

…I have to remember that it’s not my place to tell anyone what to think or feel.

 

…I wonder when it’ll stop stinging.

 

…I’m still learning new tricks, though I’m not sure how valuable they are.

 

…“It’s a pity, but we will fight on. If we run out of American bullets, we will use a different gun.” Oleksiy, Ukrainian soldier

 

…“Check your activity” is just a euphemism for “Get off your ass and move.” It’s annoying, but helpful nonetheless.

 

…I guess “Roll over and play dead” is an actually strategy, according to Carville.

 

…Keanu Reeves’ acting is spotty, depending on if he gets the right role, but from everything I’ve read, he’s an exceptional person.

 

…It’s actually nice to have the ball in someone else’s court.

 

…What’s a good day look like for you? For me, it’s seeing any kind of animal going about its business, and writing something that makes me twitch.

 

…The other morning, I was walking down the road when a stampede of two deer and a fawn flew by. It seemed like magic, but it was real.

 

…The man who read the world: Something not well known about David Bowie: he was an avid reader, sometimes finishing a book in a single day. He was “a beast of a reader,” according to his son, Duncan Jones.

Three years before he died, David Bowie made a list of the one hundred books that had transformed his life – a list that formed something akin to an autobiography. It’s telling that among Bowie’s final public statements was that this list of his Top 100 books was offered as part of the David Bowie museum exhibit. As Bowie has apparently left no memoir behind, the closest that he ventured to autobiography is this list of books. Some he chose because he wanted his fans to read them, but many selections have a deeper resonance in his work, in that they fueled his creativity and shaped who he was.

 

…Let’s go into the woods and scream. Later we can have coffee.

 

…Sometimes it’s not good to be stuck in your own head too long.

 

…Sorry if I seem weird, but most of the time I really am.

 

…To be deceived by your own thinking is a little like plagiarizing yourself. 

 

…Printers and pressure washers—two things that never work as well as they should, or last long enough before breaking down.

 

…“I became the old man telling tales & I told it all.” Gary Snyder

 

…I remember reading an interview where Elton was asked to name his favorite song and he said, “It’s always the last one I’ve written.” I get that. I sort of feel the same way.

 

…There’s always someone who needs you more.

 

…It’s easy to be nice when it’s easy.

 

…“Don’t talk about one long list of sorry.” Victoria Redel

 

…Sometimes it’d odd to think that we are all former children.

 

…When you find yourself talking back to the TV it may be time to turn it off for a while.

 

…I’m not the stalker type, but sometimes you discover a writer and…

 

…Everything’s always my fault in my head.

 

…“You’re basically a ball balancing on a stick.”

 

…Not many things feel better than making someone else’s day.

 

…Every step you take is a controlled fall.

 

…“What had bitten me was that I finally found something that I knew I was good at, and I knew I understood in a way that the other children around me did not. I remember when somebody came in from the local newspaper when I was in second grade to photograph kids for flag day. All the kids were smiling and cheesing it up, and I knew to just pretend I was doing my schoolwork and to pose as though I didn’t see the camera. I don’t know how I knew to do that, but I just did. And so I ended up on the front page of the paper.” Christina Ricci

 

…I know it sounds sexist, but I like when a woman swears, provided it’s not constantly, and provided it’s not aimed at me. 

 

…I think I need to ask more questions.

 

…I’m not a morning person and the truth is I don’t really want to be one.

 

…I have to remind myself how proud my parents were of me toward the end.

 

…Alcohol was one thing, but it seems impossible to cut sugar out of your diet.

 

…What’s really funny is the fact that I used to wrestle in junior high. Yep. And play drums in the high school band.

 

…I guess most of us have had a few bad haircuts in our time, but some of mine were What-the-fuck-were-you-thinking? types. 

 

…“Love’s losses continue, even if love doesn’t.” Padraig O Tuama

 

…Even if it was possible, I don’t think I’d want to know how things are in the future. Nope.

 

…“The worst that being an artist could do to you would be that it would make you slightly unhappy constantly.” De Daumier-Smith

 

…Colin Jost has the best smile ever.

 

…What’s also really funny is that I had my own column in the high school newspaper. I called it “Word for the Wise.” It was as if my alter-ego wrote it, someone popular with a lot of confidence and insight. At the end of the evening of my first prom, my date (who would become a really great friend) told me how nervous she was to be out with me and when I asked why, she said, “Have you ever read your own column? You sound like you’ve been with a stable of girls.” Now that’s funny, right? “Stable.” Me. Ha. We didn't even kiss. 

 

…“we have all seen the darkness now give us the dawn tell me about the joy you keep in the hollow spaces between your bones tell me again how you laughed.” 

--Kai Cheng Thom

 

…Everyone’s life is a little full of “next time,” but I usually end up regretting saying that, for one reason or another.

 

…If the elephant in the room takes up the whole room, how do you get around that? (Asking for a friend.)

 

…My friends are playing and I wish I was, too.

 

…Sometimes making people forget about their worries, or what comes next, is the best thing you can do for another person.

 

…Here’s what I mean about my least favorite word:

--“Are we still having lunch tomorrow?”

--“Sure.”

 

…Where’s the movie about Louis Armstrong? I’d go.

 

…“Love is letting people see the worst part of you without being scared.” Madison Kuntz 

 

…Thanks for asking!