A jacket is a jacket. A hat is a hat. You choose how to wear it. That person yelling at you is that person yelling at you. The deadline is the deadline. How do you wear those? Your life won't last forever. Wear it well. … [Read more...]

This happens four times per year. I am late to watching the quarterly sumo tournament. It always creeps up on me. Then I am days behind, and I will mini-binge watch it, but never quite catching up to the current day. Because I want it to extend into the future. To go on forever with the upsets and the excitement and the nail-biting matches. But then suddenly it is done, and I ration … [Read more...]

The nautilus, the seed unfurling, a meditative shape. That's one direction the spiral can go. The other is straight down to hell. One bad thought opens the door to a flood of other bad ones. A single thing becomes a million things. But the single thing can also lead to nothing. A spiral is a path. One thought is a point on that path. But a point can just be point rather … [Read more...]

Is a life ever completely fulfilled without a side hustle, a crazy off program passion project? It's not about the money, the fame, the accolades. It's about the thing that floats out there just beyond reach, that bright shining light against the darkness that will swallow us all. Easy to hang in the shadows, and slowly slide towards the dark. Hard to chase that light, because you will … [Read more...]

At a certain point in an athletic career, one has the option to pivot towards coaching. I've reached this level in my Brazilian jiu jitsu journey. I am more interested in coaching and helping others out than competing. This had made me think a lot about what it means to be a good coach. Some things I think are important: -a good eye to analyze body movement -an ability to cascade … [Read more...]

Not much of the traveler am I. Five continents. More countries and states than I can easily recall. Travel by Russian army truck, speedboats, Tuktuks, and airplanes that were so crowded that a passenger had to stand. All these places and experiences. But even so, to travel out of town for three days, and I miss my family before I am even down the walkway. More of the lonely traveler … [Read more...]