Adventures in mental health and awareness — I’m not depressed, exactly. But I am different. I haven’t written much this month. I call up my “Medium post topic ideas” list in the Bear app and stare at it for a couple of minutes. I recognize that all of these ideas could be something. …

I’ve been thinking a lot about Substack lately. Substack is a writing platform, but unlike Medium, which is more the online publication model, Substack is based on email newsletters. I’ve enjoyed my experiences with Medium these last few months, especially fellow Medium writers I’ve met. Huge shout-out to the fantastic…

When I was in school, I was fat, sweaty, uncoordinated, didn’t like sports, and had no depth perception. So you can imagine how fun gym class was for me. You know how they say people are traumatized by getting picked last on teams? That they carry this humiliation through their…

Words mean things. Let’s face it — we are getting our asses kicked when it comes to dealing with guns in this country. Mass shootings are a weekly or even daily tragedy in America now. And what happens after every single one of them is maddeningly predictable. Horror. Then calls…

My father had a lot of plans. You might even call them schemes. Like how he lashed together a bunch of old tires to construct a makeshift reef to make it easier to fish on oceanfront property he did not own. Or how he bought Great Dane puppies of dubious…

This is my father and mother, Robert and Barbara Blust. There’s no date on the photo, but based on how young they look, I think this was soon after they were married, so they were in their early 20s. It’s taken in front of my grandmother’s pool in Hinsdale, Illinois. …

We’re all in this together — “Everybody’s got a sack of rocks.” -Elaine Stritch I haven’t been writing much lately. My mental health hasn’t exactly been minty-fresh. Months of trying and failing to find gainful employment, and the attendant feelings of unemployability and worthlessness will do that to you. I’m not clinically depressed. Just down. …

Adventures in not freaking out — “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the…

Last night I dreamt I had a pool. Wait, that’s not exactly right. I woke up in the middle of the night, the first of several breaks in my sleep that are happening more and more lately. I had a dream that I was staying in a luxury hotel, and…