From Love to Desperation, Finding Sweetness in the Struggle. — I was twenty-seven and broke. Nothing would have made me happier than to buy the largest diamond ring, drop to one knee, and say, “Will you marry me?” Unfortunately, too many school loans made buying it impossible. Samantha and I met when I was an art student at Cooper Union…

A Summer of Liberation, Love, and Embracing Self-Exploration. — “Did you climax?” he inquired, to which I replied with a tender lie, “Yes”…I had suffered the embarrassing weight of “blue balls”. In the vibrant streets the morning before the parade amidst the swirling rainbow flags, I met up with him and his friends. It was the summer of 1997…

The Art of Greatness: Beyond Monetary Success in Writing and Creativity. — At that dinner table, I felt shame, then welled up with anger. The easiest emotion for an artist having experienced a lifetime of rejection. When I’m at a restaurant it is hard for me not to steal a glance at a television. I recently watched an interview with Artist Jeff…

Discovering that my childhood thinking was my future’s mental cage. — “Did that just really happen”, I thought. I had to go home immediately to change my sharted pants. A man with fair, lightly tanned skin, shining like gold, stood on the beach with friends. They were tall, muscular, and healthy looking with lean torsos. I looked down at my shirtless…

Where have all the Cowboys gone? — Haiku follows after commentary. What does it mean to be a real man in today’s society? Our understanding of gender and masculinity has evolved. In the past, traditional ideas of masculinity often centered around physical strength, dominance, and emotional stoicism. …

An intelligent conversation about the attack on the WTC. I decided to play devil’s advocate with Chat GPT. I asked it questions from the perspective of a conspiracy theorist to see how AI would answer such questioning. I tried to make the questions logical but the opposite of the general…

A young woman blossoms in a queer town after finding a secret place. — Mia felt out of place, walking down the dusty main street sidewalk to the local bookshop in her small town. She knew the newly pink-streaked hair and rainbow earrings were quietly shouting, “I have come out.” A burly man with dusty denim and a plumbing company logo on his shirt…

A map of what will happen, when it happens. — Bed frame squeaks, Limbs go meek, the will is weak, Love is love is love. Pain runs deep, Unable to speak, the mind’s desire. The end begins, Only until it happens again, Love is love is love. Sleuth-like hands, Keen eyes, unraveling, the flesh Puckers and winks, Love is love is love…

How a Do-It-Yourself laundry machine repair revealed the price of staying clean. — Eventually, the inner chamber would become a fungus frat party dirtier than a Miami spring break. The ATM fee was $3.25 to withdraw $20. I needed to withdraw cash, feed it into another machine, get quarters, and insert the coins into a dryer, to finish my laundry. The dryer cost…