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ESSAYS


Culture

Mango Is A Verb
Essay

Mango Is A Verb

Dreams flood. Birds notice. The mango decides. And somebody keeps showing up to make some semblance of sense from it.

Lacing the Kultural Kool-aid
Essay

Lacing the Kultural Kool-aid

I decided a few weeks ago to start communicating through Substack and YouTube.  When I made that decision, I agreed with myself to remain apolitical. I stand by that. I'm not going to get into left/ri

Softness Is the Enemy
Essay

Softness Is the Enemy

Oh, for the love of everything once sacred—before “sacred” became a wellness hashtag and a candle scent—let’s stop pretending the world makes sense. It doesn’t. It’s not a novel, it’s not a simulation. There is no plot, just vibes.

Snake Handlers and Footnote 47b
Essay

Snake Handlers and Footnote 47b

The Snake Handler’s Church: A Field Report in Two Services

The Great American Traffic Jam
Essay

The Great American Traffic Jam

America’s highways are more metaphor than transportation. Asphalt prayer wheels.

Good Hedges Make Good Neighbors
Essay

Good Hedges Make Good Neighbors

It starts with the hedges.

The Garden In Autumn
Essay

The Garden In Autumn

The front yard has come alive again. The air is cooler now, the heavy blanket of summer heat lifting, and with it, the flowers—daisies, asters, coneflowers, zinnias, salvia—have shaken off the long sl

The World Came To Visit While I Was Away
Essay

The World Came To Visit While I Was Away

I grew up around Atlanta when we had three sports and an attitude about it. Football, baseball, basketball — the holy trinity, non-negotiable. Soccer existed the way certain cousins exist: you were ok

The Manly Manliness of 60s TV
Essay

The Manly Manliness of 60s TV

I watched Bonanza on a black-and-white set that buzzed like static electricity.

The Beam is Not the Lighthouse
Essay

The Beam is Not the Lighthouse

They say they want a man who stands his ground. A tidy, unflinching private lighthouse you can swear by when the weather turns ugly. Until he actually shows up. Cute in theory, less so when the beam w

Sixties Cool
Essay

Sixties Cool

Back before the world got loud about everything, before comedy came with disclaimers and punchlines had paperwork,

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