How to stay curious (in your life and work) — and wipe out incuriosity “To each his own, it’s all unknown/If dogs run free.” — Bob Dylan Nothing was more pleasing during last summer’s horrific global pandemic than outdoor walks with my K-12 teacher friend Chris. Since he was off…

Hi Elizabeth! The Startup published one of my pieces in Jan. 2020 and I'm working on one for June. Hopefully you can put it under the "Mindset/Mental Health" category. Best, Mike

Looking back on my decade of loss during a global pandemic “It’s the pause that refreshes!” — early Coca-Cola slogan Here’s the marching orders I got from Glenn, a fellow writer: “So you don’t want to write. And you say you don’t want to write about COVID-19. …

Start your new year with an early morning routine that embraces daydreaming, planning, and joyful expectation — Fear is my gutterball. It probably has been from a very early age. And I sure as hell have been throwing my share of frames’ worth lately. I’m coming out of a fog of holiday dread and confusion, worried about the state of the world as well as that of…

“Crusted with cheese, golden at the edges. The waiter placed it carefully in front of me, and I broke through the top layer with my spoon and filled it with warm oniony broth, catching bits of soaking bread. The smell took over the table, a warmingness. And because circumstances rarely…

“‘One thing,’ he said later, ‘it’s quick in space. Death. It’s over like that. You don’t linger. Most of the time you don’t even know it. You’re dead and that’s it.’” — “The Rocket Man” by Ray Bradbury THE LAST THING I ever thought I’d do was write about Ray…

“Nothing” is always something. It’s just that sometimes you can’t see it. “Small” says, “nothing is always nothing.” “Big” says, “Just you wait and see.” Expanding, going big. Or shrinking — and feeling small.

“And you can sing this song On July the Fourth In the sunny south and the frozen north It’s a day of loss, it’s your day of birth Does it take a death to learn what a life is worth?” — Jackson Browne, “Of Missing Persons”

How as a culture we can become more tolerant and curious about each other? — I’d been expecting the news. But it still comes as a shock: the death of a friend. I’d been out the Saturday before Hallowe’en, slumming through my neighborhood thinking about buying a used hat. Winter was coming and I needed something to keep my head warm.