Growing up in the late 1900's in southwest Ohio, my summer days were usually filled with a lot of benign boredom. It was a pre-internet world, so the days were long, but at least once as week, some real entertainment would crop up when the thunderstorms rolled through. We’d sit on the porch and just…
The Price of Peace
I have a weird, almost uncanny talent for finding things on Facebook Marketplace. When I moved in April, I needed a LOT of furniture at one time, and did NOT have 'buying furniture at retail prices' amounts of money. What I DID have was Facebook Marketplace and a wicked ability to haggle. My new house…
Unpacking, Conflict, and a Botanical Middle Finger
I've been having a lot of vertigo lately. Luckily, it's been fairly mild, but there's something deeply unsettling about feeling dizzy and foggy. I've also been feeling like I have mental and spiritual vertigo as well. It isn’t just the physical disorientation of not knowing which drawer holds the spoons or where all my underwear…
Already Dancing
If you’re looking for the “everything is fine” version of me, you might want to check the archives from about three fiscal years ago. Currently, that version of Chris is unavailable, likely hiding under a pile of boxes or maybe trying to find a corner of the world where the cost of a pint of…
White Fragility is Racism. Period.
Well, it was a lovely weekend in Carlisle, wasn’t it? The weather was finally shifting, the downtown was bustling, and oh, look—literal white supremacist propaganda was scattered like garbage across neighborhoods and cars throughout our town. What. The. Actual. Fuck. Just what every community needs. They were found all over town, including one on my…
Lost and Found
For a long time, the calendar used to scream this date at me. March 5th. It would arrive with a heavy, thudding resonance—a day of defiance, of grief, of righteous anger. It has always been my day of marking the "Before" and the "After. And I have always marked it with the kind of sharp,…
Glimmers of Defiance
I am tired in my soul. I'll be honest. I've felt that drowning feeling, that specific soul-weariness that comes from watching the world break its own heart—again. Twice this week, I woke up to news of U.S. attacks. First Iran. Now Ecuador. Another day, another bombing. No wonder my whole being feels heavy. Sickened, angry,…
Livin’ the Dream
My past weekend was... a lot. I... -closed a show on Sunday night (Dracula, a bloody good time) -attended a funeral -officiated another funeral -and was formally installed as the Affiliated Community Minister of my congregation. On Monday, I went straight into tech week for the next show. In the middle of all this, I’m…
On Usefulness and Belonging
There is an expensive lesson that life offers, and I wish I’d had the currency to afford it sooner. It’s this: it is a profound waste of your finite time, energy, and spirit to court the approval of people who only value your utility. For most of my life, I have existed on the periphery.…
The Sparkle Farmer
A Very Ban-able Children's Story Once upon a time, on a farm named Solid Ground, lived a little boy named Liam. The farm was a world of brown. The dirt in the fields was brown. The big, sturdy barn was painted brown. The cozy farmhouse was brown. Even Liam’s favorite overalls were a plain, sensible…
VoyagersHeart 