Falling Short

I want to convey that quiet alienation — the stillness and loss of not fitting what the world demands. The point isn’t self-help but to help somebody else. I can’t fix the world or be everything everyone needs, but if I can help one person right now, that’s something.

A Scratch or Two

When you have an art or an artistic bent, you kind of leave the world. You sit and watch. You know a profound sense of emptiness and grief. It’s how you fill your time being one of life’s outsiders — we’re not lost, we tell ourselves — but it’s only us talking to ourselves, so we can say what we want, if it helps.

People wonder why someone takes up a brush or a pen. The answer is: what else is there? It breaks the silence. The lesson in all of this is that if you can walk away a kinder and gentler self, and help others, you’ve done the heavy lifting. You did okay, friend.