Your filter isn't passive interpretation — it's active construction. Explores how attention shapes what we encounter, why patterns become self-fulfilling, and the realization that we're authoring our response to circumstance through the filters we choose. From sleep-deprived annoyance to recognizing we're holding the pen.

09 Jan 2026

06 Jan 2026

02 Jan 2026

30 Dec 2025

26 Dec 2025

When you're struggling to feel motivated, you might be confusing inspiration with motivation. A reflection on shrinking scope as survival strategy, the triple meaning of present, and why sometimes all you need is the right hat to make motion feel less like survival and more like living.

When the Eldridge City Council voted to close our community's skating rink, people said "the system is broken." But what if the system is working exactly as designed? A reflection on fear-based governance, selective liability, and our responsibility to redesign systems that optimize for the wrong things.

At eighteen, a board member questioned my hire. Doc defended it: 'There's a direct correlation between eccentricities tolerated and talent.' Explores the exchange rate of authenticity, the weight that skill must carry, the danger of mistaking correlation for causation, and the gap between earning capability and feeling like you've earned it. Being yourself isn't free — it's a cost your skill has to carry.

Winter driving and the pattern of crisis-driven change. Explores why we backslide after emergencies pass, the exhaustion of sustained vigilance, and what we can build while paying attention that survives when we're not. The vigilance fades — that's biology. But systems built during attention can outlast the attention itself.