Luckiest man
I take compliments badly. Always have. A good friend told me many years ago (and he probably doesn’t even remember it) that when somebody offers me a compliment, I should learn to not over-think...
Category: Friends & Family
Grown-ups can have hamsters
“A boxer!” the boy exclaimed. We were in the car. Tom T. Hall was singing about old dogs and my kid was pointing out the window at the brown boxer on the suburban lawn....
My microlending boy
Last week around this time, I was in the back of a Volkswagon and sliding out of a misty Rosario, Argentina. The city’s huge monuments and cloud-soaked buildings escaped through the back window as...
Our new girl
We spent nearly three months walking around a quiet house. We spent three months with no reason to make sure we didn’t leave a box of crackers unattended. We spent three months without seeing...
Sunrise
I’ve seen a lot of sunrises in the past three months. Some have been shame’s flashlight, burnt orange, Vegas disasters that made me curse myself and everything around. A few have been black, through-the-curtains...
Milestone
Along the way to becoming a man, along the way to that first kiss, first car, first beer, first love (none of these in any particular order, I’m sure), and all the rest of...
Weekend pimp
I woke up this morning with a common but somehow greater appreciation for people who are willing to share what’s in their head. I have several friends who have done that over the last...
Six
Happy birthday to the boy who taught me a new kind of joy; that life is not only about more than me, but almost entirely about more than me; that there was yet another...
Boogie Ball
The seaweed was thick that day. A park ranger told me it was called sargassum. I giggled, because that’s what children like me do when they discover words that sound like a combination of...
Brothers
I wish I could remember the exact time my brother became my best friend. It might well have been the moment he was born, but you wouldn’t have known it until much later. Nearly...
The owl I never see
Three of the four corners of my house have giant Sweetgum trees within 20 feet or so. If you don’t live in the Deep South or southeast, you may never have seen the monster...
Goodbye to my dog
The funny thing is…I never wanted the dog. It was February 1999 and I was home sick from work in Jackson, Mississippi. My wife, then a producer at a television station, called me and...
A friend and his pen
Six or seven years ago, I stumbled into the circle of a guy named Pauly. You’ve seen me write a lot about him here. We’ve never lived in the same city, but over the...
World Cup tears
The boy’s lip trembled when it became clear that the USA was going to lose to Ghana. He fought the tears as long as he could and stumbled over his words as he asked...