As a society, they exhibited a mania for naming, labeling and classification that subsumed the actuality of the thing itself.

In times of upheaval, objects and beings are more stable resting on their balance points than on their bases.
Surf’s up.

Approaching the age of his father’s death, and exhibiting all of his worst traits and none of the good, he understood that the rest of his life was to be an experiment without an easy conclusion.

never not trying too hard

Stopped by the Hudson River overlook where we used to take the girls on the way to New England. Headed into the snack bar set back from the cliffs. Asked the kid at the counter about the “Free beer tomorrow” sign we always joked about. “Oh, we can’t serve alcohol here,” he said. “We get all the jumpers now the bridges are closed off.” I took my coffee outside, but couldn’t bring myself to look down. You moved on long ago. I’m still falling.

The solipsistic awfulness of the selfie gaze,
as perceived by its intended recipients.

I already had those side effects before taking the medication.

 “I have a Russian soul” = code for “I drink a lot”

Our moments together were uniformly unpleasant, but I was grateful for every one.

It was the shortest day of the year and somewhere along the way the bottom had dropped out.

All music will eventually be drumming.

Your thoughts and words become your prison walls.
Luckily someone has left the key.

The illusion of control is the source of untold human misery.

In the dream he caught the eye of someone who seemed familiar, a trusted friend of long ago or a forgotten family member, only to realize with a shock that it was a younger, kinder version of himself—a version he’d forgotten had ever existed. Describing it to them, he suddenly burst into tears. He said that three days after the dream his depression had lifted. The dream seemed rather obvious, he said, but the mind likes obvious. Obvious works.