Main

May 03, 2012

deep breaths

The problem with holding a grudge is that it turns your body into a sarcophagus.

February 26, 2012

sunscreen

Forgive mistakes. Embrace that love is clumsy. Communicate without condescension. Let people go. Let people return.

January 22, 2012

parallax

It's not really romantic until it's doomed.

November 14, 2011

asterisk

If you're always winking, your eyes aren't really open.

October 09, 2011

e pluribus unum

As important as it is not to become a parody of oneself, it is equally as important not to come off as a critique of everyone else.

September 01, 2011

until lambs become lions

An ordeal is an invitation from the universe to rise to the occasion.

June 03, 2011

watching our backs

Once you arrive at the truth it can't sneak up on you anymore.

June 01, 2011

evolution

After a while we discover that some of our beliefs are merely opinions—and a little later, that some of our opinions are just feelings.

April 02, 2011

ions

Sometimes we're on the same page. Sometimes our pages are just stuck together.

January 14, 2011

hold dear

As we get older, and time grows precious, empty gestures become costly.

December 15, 2010

held in common

Loving the same things isn't the same thing as loving each other.

November 26, 2010

old magic

Death may have existed forever but life has been around even longer.

November 05, 2010

memento mori

Some people are memorable. Other people remind us of them.

October 25, 2010

forbearance

An adult can forgive what a child can't understand.

September 26, 2010

it evens out

If you can't love someone a hundred percent of the way they want, at least love them a hundred percent of the way you can.

September 25, 2010

right now

Nothing matters as much or as little as this moment.

September 07, 2010

turn turn turn

Drilling too deep into something you like is usually a recipe for making it impossible to enjoy.

August 31, 2010

junk bonds

There's no one cheaper than a person who's free with his anger.

August 03, 2010

hope and faith

There's a difference between being faithful and being reliable.

July 10, 2010

rewind

Critical thinking is important; so is kindness.

selfless-evident

People are entitled to their happiness, even when it's on our behalf.

June 06, 2010

hearts and minds

There is a kind of intelligence that seeks footholds in other people's ignorance, that finds leverage in asymmetry and disequilibrium. The exerciser of such an intelligence often relies on the obliviousness of those closest to him to furnish his schemes, viewing their complacence as a form of acquiescence; but what intelligent, manipulative people seldom realize, for all their sophistication, is that it isn't always the absence of guile or worldliness that affords their movements trespass without notice; in truth, they have been observed and recognized: it is merely that they are also loved—and for all the things that love gets hung up on and obsesses over, there is also so much more that love accommodates and overlooks and even forgives. Sometimes we get away with things because we have willing, adoring accomplices.

May 15, 2010

love is a battlefield

You can't choose who you love but you can pick your battles.

May 05, 2010

to everything there is a season

Nostalgia is nostalgia up to a point. After that point it becomes a fetish. (After that point it becomes morbid.)

April 26, 2010

id pro quo

It's one thing to be a creature of habit. It's another to be a creature of possibility.

April 21, 2010

words to live by

From a 1910 biography of Mark Twain:

"He was a youth to the end of his days: the heart of a boy with the head of a sage; the heart of a good boy, or a bad boy, but always a willful boy, and willfulest to show himself out at every time for just the boy he was."

April 20, 2010

thermodynamics

You put your heart in. You don't always get your heart out.

April 14, 2010

you remind me

Sometimes friends remember us when we don't even remember ourselves.

March 31, 2010

fait accompli

Trying not to care about something that's bothering you is like trying not to taste what's already in your mouth.

March 19, 2010

sigh-chotomy

I think a not inconsiderable number of our internal conflicts may be attributed to the fact that what makes us sad doesn't necessarily also make us unhappy.

March 10, 2010

humanism

Closeness is a privilege, not a liberty.

March 07, 2010

multitudes

We scale mountains. We plumb oceans. We create scenes.

February 20, 2010

keep on keeping on

I don't know about "always keep them guessing." I prefer "always keep them discovering."

February 16, 2010

pulling teeth

Samuel Taylor Coleridge observed: "Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve, And Hope without an object cannot live."

I've found that hope thrives on obstacles as much as it requires an object.

February 05, 2010

etymology

It's not real just because you've given it a name. It's real when it does what its name says.

January 30, 2010

infinity

Everything ends eventually out of necessity. A practical mind is the death of immortality.

January 06, 2010

and still the sea is salt

We spend our lives waiting for other shoes to drop. There's no umbrella for that.

January 03, 2010

rubicon

It's careless where we leave our hearts. It's also the most caring thing in the world.

December 24, 2009

up to no good

The fun thing about trouble is that there are always new kinds to get into.

December 01, 2009

revolutions per lifetime

If you don't feel like playing the game now, you can always play it later. The game never ends.

November 27, 2009

maybe a little corny but it resonates

"Well, if you are what you love, and you do what you love, I will always be the sun and moon to you. And if you share with your heart—yeah, you give with your heart—what you share with the world is what it keeps of you."

"Give a Little Love," Noah and the Whale.

November 04, 2009

asterisk

Sometimes I linger because I wonder.

September 18, 2009

participle

You hide things from the world. It takes sound a while to carry. I hope the light will be enough. Things will never be this way again.

July 24, 2009

you and i

We've sung this song, we've danced this dance—every conceivable configuration of what we are, we've been.

May 25, 2009

i try to capture the moment

Waking up in strange places is the most potent form of time travel.

September 19, 2008

sí, se puede?

You cut your hair, the delivery guy observed. Preparing for the Republicans, I snarked lazily. You think they're gonna pull it off? he asked. At this point I hope not, is all I could offer.

Hoping for something not to happen tends to be the opposite of being hopeful.