I do this every night before my birthday; sit down at a keyboard to reflect on the year. There is a comfort in tradition, routine. As we age, we create groves — we don’t fall into them, no, we make them ourselves. This year, the groves went away and we…

The two-party system is a monopoly. There is a reason we break up business monopolies: They are harmful to innovation and the free-market system. They are islands of self-governance and because they have no competition, they can make their own rules. I can hear you saying “But the two-party system…

Each year I reflect in the hours before my birthday begins at midnight. It is a meditation on the year past and the age I was and all the years that have led me to this point. It is something of a ritual and the only parameter is to write. …

Have you heard of this thing “cancer”? Yeah? Me, too. Do any of you out there NOT know someone who has died from cancer? No, I didn’t think so. In the last year, I have lost two great people to cancer, both relatively young men, who I will give tribute…

I come from a family of teachers, but I never aspired to teaching. No, that isn’t quite right….it seemed like a bad deal to me: Early morning start, locked in a room with kids for 8–10 hours, terrible pay. Sure, summers off but… Well, I’m an artist. I paint fine…

It’s my birthday again. This year far from Thanksgiving — the furthest it can be. One year, I watched the sun rise on my birth day; it takes a long time and is coldly beautiful at the end of November. One year it was on Thanksgiving, which made me very…

I held the age of 35 in holy horror. Why? No idea. I think we all have some age that scares us. Perhaps it represents a turning point for our parents or a societal trope of our formative years, unremembered and buried in the subconscious as a terror connected to…

A case study for Gut Fermentation Syndrome — Preface: I am a 35-year old female. Normally healthy except for deteriorating teeth. We have the mandated health insurance, but choose to use it only for glasses and teeth. Auto-brewery syndrome definition: also known as gut fermentation syndrome, is a rare medical condition in which intoxicating quantities of ethanol are…

My best friend from college, Michael, called me: Our buddy, Nick Tochelli, had died. Complications from surgery. I think he was younger than me. I am 35. He is the first of us to go. When did we last talk? Maybe a year. Probably more. I am certain there are…