"I like to use 'I Can't Believe it's Not Butter' on my toast in the morning, because sometimes when I eat breakfast, I like to be incredulous. How was breakfast? Unbelievable." –Demetri Martin The early explorers who came back with stories from Yellowstone were written off as crazy people. Surely a loose screw, an overindulgence on booze, or insanity caused by being alone for too long was easier to believe than the tall tales that returned. Upside down waterfalls? Boiling rivers? Bubbling mud? Twenty foot beasts? Please. Well, if you've never seen a geyser, hydrothermal activity, or …
The “Must Be Nice” You Might Be Missing
It's the curse of every author. The exact millisecond you finally release a book from your tight grip and allow it to run free in the world, it happens. An anecdote comes your way that would have been perfect for it and you immediately think of seventeen other insights you should have added. When I wrote Must Be Nice, I didn't spend any time addressing the holidays, but boy, does that phrase pop up this time of year. And perhaps the bitter tone that accompanies our "must be nice" is a smidge more resentful. The holiday season looks different to everyone who …
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Pay Attention To What You Pay Attention To
This just in: The world is a dumpster fire. 🔥 When we left for a recent trip to Hawaii, I made the decision to unplug. I'd monitor my business email every other day or so, but detach completely from following the news and my social media feeds. It was awesome. I felt present. My heartbeat slowed and my anxiety melted. It was so glorious, that I maintained the distance even after returning home. Oh, I've snuck a peek, but it's like opening an unmarked door to reveal a gigantic infinity room filled with fires, explosions, kung fu fights, screaming chimps throwing poop at evil …
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Captured Memories, Lost Moments: The Art of Experiencing Life
I wanted to throw my phone into the raging river a thousand feet below. Its camera stubbornly refused to reflect the beauty I was seeing. It wasn't fitting everything in. The colors were off. I'd take a picture and it looked nothing like what unfolded before me. It was like a reporter only telling half the truth. You'd think I'd have learned my lesson. I experienced the same feeling when I visited the Grand Canyon. No camera on the face of the earth could sufficiently encapsulate the full grandeur of the feeling one has standing before it. I chuckled at the tourists with their tiny …
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What Are The Chances?
The baseball deflected off the bat, soaring high and out of play. It reached the roof over the grandstand above us, but I suspected it might roll back. It did. I watched as gravity reversed the ball's course and it fell back into the crowd. Hitting the aisle about twenty feet away, it ricocheted wildly off the concrete, and raced through a forest of arms, right toward me. I kept my eye on the ball and relied on the instincts and reflexes honed in my days as a second baseman. I alertly shifted my hands to my left and the ball stuck. I had just caught a foul ball at Wrigley Field on …
The Two Zoo Truths
I have an odd experiment I'd love to try someday. I thought of it during a family visit to the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, after going through a number of exhibits in a row in which the animals were either hidden or off exhibit. (It's hard to tell if the jaguar is sleeping in a corner out of view or at the vet for a check-up.) After a few minutes of fruitless searching, we just shrug our shoulders and head to the next one. So I thought it would be interesting to remove all the animals from every exhibit at a particular zoo. How long would it take for the average visitor to realize that …
Shiny Objects and Our Search for Meaning
They don't make Super Bowl rings like they used to. A recent speaking engagement in Ohio provided me the opportunity to take my son Ben along for a side trip to Canton, home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. One of the standout displays was its collection of Super Bowl rings. You can see and compare every ring, from the first commemorating the Green Bay Packers' victory in Super Bowl I, to the one awarded to the LA Rams for winning Super Bowl LVI. The recent versions look less like rings and more like diamond-encrusted paperweights. The Super Bowl LVI ring is shaped like the …
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Why “Ugly or Beautiful?” is a Trick Question
One day Kim wrote a social media post about how ugly our backyard is after having been ravaged by a cataclysmic storm. The harsh, violent, apocalyptic hellscape is heartbreaking. And very, very ugly. A well-intentioned commenter felt the need to correct her, "No, it's beautiful." Of course, the commenter is right. It is beautiful, in many real and metaphorical ways. And the photos Kim has taken of the carnage have captured some of that beauty. But you know what? It’s also ugly. Especially in comparison to what it was before. It can be both. It is both. And that's ok. As …
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Lessons From My Older Self
I wanted to share an update with you about what happened in the middle of our season finale 99th episode of Escape Adulthood LIVE. Kim and I had a lot of fun dressing up as 99-year-olds. There was much shenanigating (the first five minutes were worth the price of admission!). Near the end of our "Let's Draw" segment, a severe storm knocked out our power, abruptly cutting the show short. As it turned out, the storm produced a 100-plus mile per hour straight-line wind, which from what I understand is like a tornado but instead of rotating, the wind comes in one direction. Kim ran upstairs to …
The Miracle in Your Mailbox
A stamp is a miracle. For just fifty-eight cents, someone will come to your house to collect a letter you've written and hand-deliver it to the house of someone else anywhere in the country.Heck, back in the old days, you had to be royalty with great wealth and servants at your beck and call if you wanted a personal message delivered to someone in your kingdom.Even now, if you lived in Miami, how much time, money, and effort would it take you to hand-deliver a birthday card to a friend in Seattle? Depending on whether you took a plane or car, and if you had any overnight stays involved, it …