Yearly Archives: 2018
MENTORS, ADOLESCENCE, AND A NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR WHO SAVED MY LIFE
July 12, 2018
I lost my way. I’d thought by my labors to stand outside that true bend of gravity which is the world’s pain. The beauty of the stonework is simply a reflection of the purity of the mason’s intention.” —Cormac McCarthy, The Stonemason When I was 12 years old, my parents split, and I moved with my mom and sister from … Read More
ON FASTING
July 5, 2018
As a kid growing up in Kansas, I ate roughly one million gazillion Burger King Whoppers. Sometimes Double Whoppers. Until I became vegetarian as a freshman in college, I ate a ton of antibiotic-filled animals and cleared acres of rainforest with my insane eating habits. My relationship with food was wonderfully simple—eat till I can barely move, drink enough coffee … Read More
BUILDING THE NEIGHBORHOOD: THE GENIUS OF FRED ROGERS
June 28, 2018
Mr. Rogers, we need you now more than ever. I watched the film Won’t You Be My Neighbor earlier this week, and it has stuck with me in a way few films ever have. In several places in the film I found myself on the verge of tears—and by the end, the entire theater left crying. The depth and consistency … Read More
BORROWED, BEGGED, AND STOLEN WISDOM, PART SEVEN
June 21, 2018
(Things I have borrowed, begged, andstolen from books, movies, conversations, etc.) The price of being a sheep is boredom. The price of being a wolf is loneliness. Choose one or the other with great care. —Hugh McCleod Always comes back to the same necessity—you go deep enough and there is a bedrock of truth. —May Sarton Three things in … Read More
HIGH MILEAGE, LOW BAGGAGE (My Personal Packing List)
June 15, 2018
The average day on this spring tour has worked like this: Drive to Somewhere, USA, and find the motel. If you are lucky, get into bed early enough to get a few hours’ sleep before getting up at five a.m. to drive a little more and load into a high school. Play. Speak. Take questions (be blown away by the … Read More
PRINCE STORIES—AND WHY HE IS THE GREATEST
June 6, 2018
“The thing with Prince is, he plays his second instruments better than you play your first.” —Jimmy Jam Pushing boundaries, giving your LIFE to your art, writing hits, combining genres, and putting on a MIND-BLOWING LIVE SHOW, no one got near THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS. One of my very first records was Prince’s 1999. I had the cassette as … Read More
IT’S EXPENSIVE TO BE POOR: SAME-DAY LENDING IN AMERICA
May 30, 2018
Though my day job is rock ’n’ roll (touring/songwriting/recording), I get to speak to 80 to 100 high schools a year about what I believe to be something very “rock ’n’ roll”—giving people a fair shot. Giving students a level playing field and helping them gain the freedom in their lives to use their talents, build something sustainable, and pull … Read More
SCALE IT DOWN
May 23, 2018
“Pack a small suitcase and a smaller ego.” —Willie Nelson So much of life is what to include and what to leave out. What to focus on and what to ignore. The space and light that comes to us once we defend our preferences is amazing. To the degree that at some level we might even be afraid of it. … Read More
LESS IS MORE: THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING A SYSTEM AND SAYING NO
May 16, 2018
Do you write down your phone messages in five different places? Do you feel like you need to check five social media sites to make sure you don’t miss something important that might lead to business? Do you say YES to everything that comes your way? This is chaos. There was a time where I would make calls lists on … Read More
DETROIT VERSUS EVERYBODY: AN OPEN LETTER TO ANYONE LOOKING TO REINVENT THEMSELVES
May 2, 2018
No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell. – Carl Jung I spend every spring/fall season playing rock ’n’ roll and speaking at high schools about “financial literacy”—a very unsexy and non-rock ’n’ roll-sounding term. Please read instead: hope, justice, income inequality—leveling the playing field for the least among us. Our … Read More