Everything and everyone is saturated to the gills with political commentary, hot takes, discourse, and pissed-off snark. People and the internet are so filled with all of this they don’t really have time or space for anything else. Longtime followers know that I think this whole culture and drift is toxic and erodes the human spirit and the possibility of culture and life. You also know I am most interested in writing about, talking photos of, and exploring life in our modern world. Trying to make, and document, (honest) life as art in our age of clickbait-algo spectator reactive discourse. For the past six months I have been working on compiling a collection of short essays and vignettes I have written over the years into a single print volume and I am thrilled to share it with you. In curating this collection for print I was adamant about a few things. I wanted a classic, simple, beautiful design inside and out. I wanted a book that you could carry around, toss on your bed, put in your pocket, shove in your bag, manhandle on the beach, write in, write on, and everything else in-between. For me, the point of this collection isn’t to produce an epic hardcover tome. It’s something more informal and approachable. Something simpler and relatable. I’ve always loved those little paperbacks. You know, the ones they say they aren’t going to make anymore. Well, I want to still make them or something similar to them. I wanted this collection to be as close as possible to that rugged, personal, carefree spirit. The book itself is about 5 in. X 7.75 in.. About as small as you can get these days. The design is simple and (hopefully) timeless, the font is warm, the margins are ample, and the pieces honest. There’s a link in my linktree / bio to Amazon where you can Buy Modern Lives. Or of course, just search Amazon as we all so often do and that will work just as well. No politics, no hot-takes, no reaction, no discourse; just life.

Life will continue to go on no matter what, so it’s a good idea to not build your future around assumptions of an imminent apocalypse.

We had a compilation VHS and this was on it when we were kids. I honestly don’t remember even thinking about how old it was. I didn’t even wonder. I don’t think you care about time in that way as a kid. It doesn’t mean anything to you. I just knew I liked it.

I love the sound of the geese in October and November. Because all our kids have been born in October and November the sound of their squawking and the sight of them flying above will always have a fond place in my heart. I will always associate them with new life.

Sitting outside on the front porch drinking coffee. The baby is in bed, one sick kid is in bed, a kid who used to be sick but is now feeling better is being read to and I am re-energizing in the cool October air.

The 11 month old is pissed that we won’t let her eat egg shells out of the garbage.

This is so insanely accurate. Just seeing this image throws me back to that era in a crazy way. The girls always had on a minimum of 3 shirts + 2 camisoles.

Our 11 month old groans as she eats. She does it loudly too. It’s like the What About Bob scene with the corn but worse. It sounds like she’s an engine droning on and in and out trying to get started. It’s honestly loud and we all joke about how “we’ve heard you and we would like some peace now.” I imagine constantly groaning while eating and munching along and it’s just so funny and weird. None of our other kids did this. Each one is different. We tell her, “don’t spray it and don’t even say it.”

The worst part about getting a bunch of sleep one night is not being able to fall asleep sleep the next one.

Son just came out of his room talking total non-sense. Something about Halloween and the water tasting terrible and trying to get it out. Gave him a few sips of sparkling water and asked if he felt better and said yes and happily went back to bed. Dreams are so weird, I used to wake up from them and be so weird too. We are ourselves but kind of not. You see why people have gotten into them so much over the years. They are a weird slice of strange reality.

I’m used to driving on these kinds of roads and so now traffic is deeply annoying to me.

Seeing a baby riding in a carseat in a convertible is somehow one of the craziest things I have seen. I can't remember ever seeing it in real life though obviously it must happen or must have happened at some point.

This seems bad but it isn't even the worst of it. I would actually kill for this kind of sunny clear sky with snow. It's actually beautiful. We have far more days where the snow is this but the sky is heavy cobalt with no shadows. Difficult moments.

Looney Tunes kind of vehicle

Was talking to our neighbor today. Great guy. One of his four kids just had his fifth. Our kids always accost him and his wife with questions and/or climb trees and peek over into their backyard. We apologize but they insist it's fine because they have a lot of grandkids. Life is still going on if you want it to.