Etcetera

When I’m not working, here are the things that keep me going:

My family: Turns out that people who are willing to sleep in a tent together must really like each other. We’ve had a lot of fun over the years, but my favorite memories are of all the times we’ve gone camping and/or hiking in national parks from Acadia to Bryce Canyon.

Good bourbon: This one’s pretty easy when you live in Kentucky.

A good book: Anything from Philip K. Dick to Toni Morrison.

Loud music: I don’t get out to shows much anymore, but nothing beats that feeling when the kick drum makes your chest hum.

Video games: Journey, Portal, The Outer Wilds, Mass Effect 2, and Fallout: New Vegas are some of my all-time favorites.

Good food and a well-made cocktail. RIP Rye on Market. Long live The Silver Dollar.

As I get older, I relate more and more to Bob Dylan’s lyric in ‘My Back Pages’: ‘Ah but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.’ The older I get, the less certain I feel about a lot of things. There are some things, though, that I’m sure of:

Breonna Taylor still deserves justice. Everyone deserves to be treated with kindness, honesty, and respect. Curiosity and empathy are two of the most important qualities a person can have. The Golden Rule pretty much nails it. I’d rather spend my time pursuing beauty and understanding than power or money. Anything worth doing is worth doing well.

Also, dogs are better than cats (sorry, cat fanciers).