She gets onto the bus and forgets about me. Immersed in a different world filled with friends, and social media, and talking about middle school things. When she returns in the afternoon, I ask her about her day. Fine, she says flipping her hair back like she always does. Why do you want to know how my day was? she thinks. School is boring and I don’t want to have to relive it for your benefit. Just fine? I ask…
In 2010, after my dog Tucker died, I wrote a story about the morning we had to put him down. It was cathartic to write, even though I did so through a tsunami of tears. After posting it to my blog, I received the greatest outpouring of love from people that I’ve ever experienced. People reached out for weeks afterward, as the post was shared across social media. It seemed that everyone who read the story empathized with my loss…
“You’re like having a third child,” my wife says to me. We have two daughters. And she’s right. I’ve never really grown up. Sure, I’m more wrinkly now than I’ve ever been. And my hair’s turning silver. But in my heart I’ve never really felt like a “grown up.” Grown ups wear suits and go to work in big buildings and have days full of meetings and miss soccer games because they’re in San Francisco closing deals. None of that…
Maybe they’re right. Maybe we should all just build walls around our hearts and say, “Good luck” to people who need help. Those leeches who steal food from my table. Then we all buy guns and cut crosses into the walls so that the muzzles of the guns fit through and we shoot anyone who tries taking what we have. *** Jim
I’m a copywriter. I make my living by using words to convey feelings, tell stories, and get people to think certain ways about things. I’m pretty good at it, too. Over the years I’ve convinced CEOs of major companies to have coffee, and the children of Lexus owners to purchase new cars in advance of the cars actually hitting the market. My point is that I’ve had some success writing correspondence aimed at other human beings. Only lately, things have changed. It…
Before we left for vacation, I spent an afternoon at a men’s rehab talking to the guys who were all part of a 90-day program to get clean. It was my anniversary date. I talked to a few guys about getting sober, but mostly they weren’t receptive to the message that “it gets better.” It’s hard to fathom 24 years sobriety when you’re just trying to make it through the night. Anyway there was one guy, Adrien B., who was…
