My son’s friend fell recently while hiking in St. George. Broke a few bones, will be okay. It got us talking about hiking, about clumsiness — timely, because the cupboard door pull had just hooked my belt loop mid-conversation and jerked me forward. Jake’s question landed: if I’m that clumsy, how did we all survive… Read More Not Every Hike Has to be The Hike

My mom wanted to make sure I knew that Satan is a fallen angel. In case I didn’t know that part. I did know that part. His name, I told her, is Lucifer. Very devious, I’d heard. We were in the car. This is how theological education works in my family. Not in a church,… Read More God Is As Comically Inclined As I Had Suspected

For an idyllic couple weeks several years ago, my mom cooked the meals on weekdays. I cooked on the weekends. The kids get dinner faster. It is, as I described it at the time and stand by completely, like having a wife. I mean, when it worked and while it lasted.  This arrangement works. It… Read More Plan B Zucchini

There is a specific kind of satisfaction that pressure washing delivers that has nothing to do with clean. It is the satisfaction of visible, immediate, measurable progress. You can see every bit of dirt leaving the surface. You can see how much is left. You know exactly when you’re done This is not how most… Read More The Chart is the Dirty Rug

At the start of 2024, I bought the wrong year planner. I want to tell you this because I think it’s the most honest possible beginning to a piece about technology and intentionality: I bought the wrong year planner, and I had already replaced it before January was over, and I still needed to figure… Read More AI Blind Spots

I would have been horrified. I want to be clear about that before I say anything else. If my mother had a podcast — if she had a show, a platform, a presence, a whole thing — I would not have survived it. The second-hand embarrassment alone would have been a medical event. And yet.… Read More Generational Cringe

I think I may have been going for an object lesson in ingredient quality. I gave Chat GPT a list of crappy stuff left in the pantry that seemed like it might cause a cake. I asked to help create a recipe to make a cake with what I have on hand. Then I cracked… Read More AI Make & Cakes

I’m looking for my thousand true fans… or I’ll be on OnlyFans in a year. It’s true. 1,000 True Fans (Or: Why I Put an Amazon Link on a Website About My Feelings) There is a concept — credited to Kevin Kelly, no relation, though I appreciate the nominal solidarity — called 1,000 True Fans.… Read More Fans