The Essays
My writing journey began before I knew how to spell a single word. For as long as I can remember, I’ve struggled against the limitations of expressing my inner world. That struggle has long been the driving force in my life - a persistent inner wind to give voice to the worldless emotions at the root of all human experience.
My first outlet professional outlet for that force came during my first career as a high school history teacher. I began writing long, loving, and rich recommendations for graduating seniors on their way to university. Seeing the impact of the work convinced me that I had a nascent talent for this wordsmithing thing. In 2004,
I left my teaching job to travel the world for a while, eventually landing in Antigua, Guatemala, where - with a friend - I founded an English language cultural and political magazine called La Cuadra. That soon became a full-time job. Over the course of our eleven-year run, I wrote hundreds and hundreds of articles ranging from critical reviews, to ribald satire, to political analysis trenchant enough that it garnered a few very thinly veiled death threats.
I shuttered La Cuadra in 2015 in order to focus on my recovery and to teach myself how to write long-form, but avocationally, I’ve continued to kick out 1500 to 2500-word pieces several times a week for my followers on social media. Follow the links below to see some examples of the work, and sign up for the email list to receive the latest updates in your daily mail.
Political Analysis
After a few of the above-mentioned death threats for writing about issues in Guatemala, I’ve learned to stick closer to what I know - the maddening reality of politics in the modern United States. Relying on my background as a student of history and political science and written from my Central American perch just beyond the rim of the empire, I provide regular analysis to my followers on Facebook, Medium, and Substack.
One of the most widely read of my essays, entitled These Magic Kids, was written the night of the March for Our Lives Rally in March 2018 - it was shared more than 100,000 times on various social media platforms and provides a solid introduction to my work.
cultural commentary
There’s tremendous crossover between politics, culture, and personal experience - and my writing tends to blend the three. Follow the link to read a short, personal story written in the days following the attack on the worlds greatest living novelist, Salman Rushdie.
I met him once . . . almost.
stories of life and spirit
The first important truth I discovered through writing was that everyone’s lives are the same in precisely different ways. I think it’s sort of what Paul Simon was getting at when he wrote the song The Myth of Fingerprints - “I’ve seen them all, and man, they’re all the same.”
They are - we are. We’re all the same in precisely different ways.
The gift of that is if you tell your own story honestly enough, though your reader will never have lived those moments, they will emotionally and naturally engage the harmonies of the larger human story.
Follow the link below for an example of what I mean.
“It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”
— Squarespace