The Everyday Human

October: On Fear, Doubt, and Uncertainty October 5 “Ah, the great myth and legend.” “Do no such times exist?” “Depends on where you stand and what you see,” she says. Takes a moment, another sip. “Even then, there’s war to be found in a field of flowers among the ants and bees and peace and calm to be found in a field of battle among soldiers in prayer and meditation.” “So it depends on where I st...

October: On Fear, Doubt, and Uncertainty October 4 And then to push it further beneath that gray and somber cloud, I look at the world around me and see just how divided we’ve become, but then I stop and remind myself that we’ve probably always been this divided because of the nature of labels and masks and borders and beliefs being applied to territorial animals who’ve developed a habit for walki...

October: On Fear, Doubt, and Uncertainty October 3 Packing day is a ways off. By the calendar Fox keeps in his mind, he has about a month or so before the day is upon him. (He’d tried the paper calendars and planners, but they just wouldn’t stick. He doesn’t have the personality for it—so he tells himself.) As the days tick by, he sees more and more of his neighbors leaving. There goes Badger and...

October: On Fear, Doubt, and Uncertainty October 2 It is after these moments of fear from your brush with Death, when your heart is beating and your breath is rapid, and perhaps when you wear a near-manic smile on your face at the fact that you just skid off a snowy road into a ditch and totaled your car yet survived without a scratch, or near fell off a cliff in another country, or survived a fal...

October: On Fear, Doubt, and Uncertainty October 1 But this fear of failure, and really most other fears that might float through my mind on a given day are created by me—by my mind alone. They come from nowhere and no one else. These fears, if I let them, will back me into that corner. They will take control, freezing me into a creative or personal decision-making paralysis. Because I’m safe from...

September: On Friendship and Connection September 30 Let it all go and relish in knowing your presence is a comfort. Relish your moments of happiness walking in the woods with a loved one, giving and receiving gifts, laughing, crying, smiling, and talking together . . . the moments of holding one another, because that might be it. That might be the whole reason for everything. Reflection title: Th...

September: On Friendship and Connection September 29 If you find yourself mistrusting—there could very well be a valid reason for it, but perhaps more often than not, the mistrust stems from your own insecurities—something you need to confront before pinning the blame on an innocent party.  If you find yourself the subject of mistrust in a relationship, it’s best to refrain from becoming defensive...

September: On Friendship and Connection September 28 The pane splinters and breaks and shatters and the shards fly past them, cutting them, leaving large, gaping wounds that they think is the cause of the end. But the cracks were there all along, digging soft into them to the point they couldn’t feel that slowly, oh so very slowly the flowing blood of their friendship was leaking dry all along. A...

September: On Friendship and Connection September 27 A young boy living next door. A young girl playing blocks in preschool. An altar boy who rang the bells when I forgot. A new kid in class from the other side of the island. Another kid with brown hair who didn’t fit into any cliques in high school. A barista in a coffee shop. A kid with a BMX bike in the backyard. An expo in the chaotic kitchen...

September: On Friendship and Connection September 26 But you looked to your companion and said, “What do you think?” “Die here with him or go on looking for his paradise,” they said. You know it’s foolish to believe . To hold on to such a fragile thing as hope, but you nodded and the two of you continued on. You crest the hill the fool spoke of, but you’re already wary. There has been no change in...

September: On Friendship and Connection September 25 Any time I’d find myself uncomfortable in school, it’d pop into my head—a reminder that when I survived the day, I’d have Bowie, Jaha, Sarah, Peter, May, and the rest of the Shining Force to hang out and save the world with. I’d laugh with them, strategize, and get dead serious when it was time to take down King Galam and Zeon. It was a game, su...

September: On Friendship and Connection September 24 The laughter and silliness shared with my friends was fun and goofy, and while, to a degree, these friendships served to help me through some of the toughest times I had growing up, I also laughed and goofed around for the sake of laughing and goofing around. Staying up late, playing video games, or watching silly movies and cracking up until ou...

September: On Friendship and Connection September 23 Someone being there for you, you being there for someone. To have another to sit with you and share in your sorrow, that is a sort of rescue in itself. And while someone is with you, you’re able to experience it for yourself . . . this very human thing of being broken by emotion. You’re able to let the pain feed on you. To let it bury its fangs...

September: On Friendship and Connection September 22 Nothing good can ever come from burying the truth—however big or small, truth is truth. That being said, it usually starts with something small, doesn’t it? A white lie that you “get away with.” Intentional or not, it becomes easier to lie after that—about something just a little bigger, maybe, and then bigger than that until there’s a graveyard...

September: On Friendship and Connection September 21 I’ve never had friends like the ones I had when I was twelve again, because it isn’t possible. That was a select pane in the stained-glass window of my life. Those friendships and experiences I had in 1997 could only exist in that moment and place in time. I don’t talk to those guys anymore either, sometimes I wonder how they’re doing, what they...

September: On Friendship and Connection September 20 About two hours later, I feel a gentle shaking on my shoulder. It takes a moment to remember who I am, where I am, and who might be waking me. “I could use some rest,” Esdras says, though somehow, he still doesn’t look tired. “Sure, buddy,” I say, getting up to give him my spot on the bench. Evan’s still sleeping, but that’s fine. A few more hou...

September: On Friendship and Connection September 19 I am fortunate to have a circle of friends and collaborators who do this for me, and I, in turn, do it for them. Many of my closest friends today also work in the arts. It was the act of creation that drew us together in the first place—comics, games, novels, short stories, poetry. When I send a script to an artist I regularly work with, they’ll...

September: On Friendship and Connection September 18 Have you ever truly considered the why of friendships and partnerships? What is the purpose of these odd and growing or decaying things? I might wager it’s to make this thing called life enjoyable. Or perhaps to have someone to share in and ease the inevitable suffering that we must endure at one time or another. It’s to not wander alone along t...

September: On Friendship and Connection September 17 Missing someone can be a healthy thing in a relationship. “Absense makes the heart grow fonder” is a cliche for a reason. Space in any relationship, plutonic, familial, or romantic, is key. Without it, we can so easily smother each other. Time for solitude and seeing or speaking with other people is essential to see a relationship thrive. In a h...

September: On Friendship and Connection September 16 You are a fragile thing. One betrayal, you can get over that. You can find more in your heart to give to others. Two? Maybe. Three? Well, the more you feel that knife in your back, the less likely you are to let your guard down and trust others in the future, and it can soon become a lonely and paranoid existence. As we said, it’s a very human t...

September: On Friendship and Connection September 15 And there is something strange and mysterious about danger and death that latches on to each end of the thread and yanks it quickly and mercilessly until it is taut. It comes about from natural disasters, accidents, wars, shared traumatic events. When the waters recede, when the tinkling of broken glass and the hissing of the destroyed radiator...

September: On Friendship and Connection September 14 There is a version of us that we shouldn’t have to water down or bend or make logical or force to fit the current fashion. Yes, if you’re a creative, you must be yourself. Now it is more important than ever, I believe. But just as a human, too—there needs to be an outlet for the true you. You have to be able to throw all of those hats away, even...

September: On Friendship and Connection September 13 I think, in order to lead a fulfilling life, we can and must do three things (or maybe two if you look at it through Stevenson’s lens): love, serve, and create. And while it is possible to love oneself and create for oneself, to serve oneself might be a stretch sometimes (though you must care for yourself, which is a sense of service, I suppose)...

September: On Friendship and Connection September 12 A gift is not a utilitarian act. Sure, you could give someone something they “need” like a tool or a car (who actually gives cars other than the weirdos in car commercials at Christmas time?), but that sort of gift might soon be forgotten. No, a gift—a true gift with meaning—is a symbol. It’s a physical representation or manifestation of the bon...

September: On Friendship and Connection September 11 In another life you are a warrior-chief made of stone and flesh. You train your people endlessly against the threat of invasion, or for the promise of expanding your territory. You take them to the highest peaks of the mountains to slay the winds and into the darkest depths of the cavernous continent below the surface to batter the shadows. You...