Holding community space

An incomplete guide to building community spaces.

Aching together

Heartbreak lives somewhere new every season. Summer wears it proudly. It's hidden underneath the crinkling leaves in fall, and I walk over it and can just hear it crying out. But then winter comes and the cold muffles its cries. Thank god, I think guiltily, I can relax

Back to earth

I boarded a three-day train from Massachusetts to Los Angeles last week with an 80-pound bag of tools, on my way to do paid work in the physical world instead of the digital one for the first time since high school. I've tinkered with different kinds of machines for

A walking contradiction

I forgot to bring my travel mug on a 4,000 mile drive across the US. Shame on me, at every gas station fuel-and-caffeine fill up. I prostrate myself before the neon gods of every almost-beautiful 24-hour rest area. I feel the weight of the carbon blowing from my tailpipe

Slow down, you crazy child

What if I did less?

Smiling at strangers

My cashier at the grocery store looked angry yesterday. Shit, I’d probably be angry too, getting paid a pittance to move food I can hardly afford myself from left to right all day. I eye-smiled at her as I handed her my card, and for a second I could

Graveyard tourism

I've been running a lot. Running in New York is like playing Frogger, except instead of splattering you on the pavement, people usually just honk or give you the finger. Ah, New York. To escape the video game, I've started running through the seemingly infinite cemeteries

An unexpected hug

I was biking home from Home Depot one day with 50 pounds of tools in my backpack, and stopped at a red light in Bed Stuy. As I waited, four young-ish men walked across the street in front of me. I glanced at them, and three of them looked back

Day and night

A walk through the patterns of my life

Building the next wave of community institutions

My search for community, and my mission to build the community I want to be a part of.

Finding a new dimension

My ongoing journey into letting go, thinking less, and feeling more.

Seeking the edge

The pleasure of searching for my limits.