Everything and everyone is saturated to the gills with political commentary, hot takes, discourse, and pissed-off snark. People and the internet are so filled with all of this they don’t really have time or space for anything else. Longtime followers know that I think this whole culture and drift is toxic and erodes the human spirit and the possibility of culture and life. You also know I am most interested in writing about, talking photos of, and exploring life in our modern world. Trying to make, and document, (honest) life as art in our age of clickbait-algo spectator reactive discourse. For the past six months I have been working on compiling a collection of short essays and vignettes I have written over the years into a single print volume and I am thrilled to share it with you. In curating this collection for print I was adamant about a few things. I wanted a classic, simple, beautiful design inside and out. I wanted a book that you could carry around, toss on your bed, put in your pocket, shove in your bag, manhandle on the beach, write in, write on, and everything else in-between. For me, the point of this collection isn’t to produce an epic hardcover tome. It’s something more informal and approachable. Something simpler and relatable. I’ve always loved those little paperbacks. You know, the ones they say they aren’t going to make anymore. Well, I want to still make them or something similar to them. I wanted this collection to be as close as possible to that rugged, personal, carefree spirit. The book itself is about 5 in. X 7.75 in.. About as small as you can get these days. The design is simple and (hopefully) timeless, the font is warm, the margins are ample, and the pieces honest. There’s a link in my linktree / bio to Amazon where you can Buy Modern Lives. Or of course, just search Amazon as we all so often do and that will work just as well. No politics, no hot-takes, no reaction, no discourse; just life.

I’m used to driving on these kinds of roads and so now traffic is deeply annoying to me.

Seeing a baby riding in a carseat in a convertible is somehow one of the craziest things I have seen. I can't remember ever seeing it in real life though obviously it must happen or must have happened at some point.

This seems bad but it isn't even the worst of it. I would actually kill for this kind of sunny clear sky with snow. It's actually beautiful. We have far more days where the snow is this but the sky is heavy cobalt with no shadows. Difficult moments.

Looney Tunes kind of vehicle

Was talking to our neighbor today. Great guy. One of his four kids just had his fifth. Our kids always accost him and his wife with questions and/or climb trees and peek over into their backyard. We apologize but they insist it's fine because they have a lot of grandkids. Life is still going on if you want it to.

My wife got these little lamps for the kids beds because they kept losing their flashlights at night - where do all the lost flashlights go by the way? - and they are honestly kind of sweet. Never had these things when we were kids. It's futuristic now.

Having children completes us and makes us more human than we were before. Or put another way, it reveals a side of the human experience - a side integral to the survival of humans - that can't be experienced or understood in any other way. It's deep.

"Your good behavior is due to your poor health." - My grandmother to her seven children whenever they were sick with colds in the 1960s

He just got here and he’s already tired. Know that feeling.

Life is busy. Good busy, but busy. It seems like I am traveling for work every single week. It's great work, the best work, but busy. There's a lot going on, a lot to manage, just so many plates in the air with so many exciting things in life - business ventures, creating art, raising kids and getting ready for another one. Every Friday afternoon feels like a race to the very end, the last minute before sunset, and then silence. We keep shabbat in the traditional way in our house which means we don't drive, spend money, or use our phones, tvs, internet etc... It's very important for our family. Our whole week revolves around it really. It's the arrival point at the end, that which everything is kind of gravitating toward and that which cannot ever be postponed or rescheduled. It's an island in time and one where we are just a family and only a family for 24 hours once every 7 days. I've said it before, and I will say it again - doing it keeps me (someone who is online all the time) sane. Sometimes it's really hard to pause work, sometimes I don't get everything done and I feel a real bad itch and it's hard to not scratch it. It's also hard to say "no" to people or events which happen on Saturday (which happens a lot) even if we really want to go. But that's how it is and it's important and the rewards far outweigh anything else. I post about this somewhat regularly because it's really such a huge part of our life - taking that one day a week off. It's almost radical in the age of the smartphone. Nevertheless, this week was a busy week. This morning my son and I were in the eastern U.P. right near Canada, but now we are home and the sun is getting lower. My wife baked challah like she does every week, baked pumpkin muffins, a whole chicken, quiche for tomorrow morning, and tuna salad for lunch after. And now, it's time for us to sign off. Have a wonderful weekend, and shabbat shalom.

Need a book - “Lies my TL told me” about people’s brains being fried online.

Wes Anderson in Michigan's Upper Peninsula

Don't try to keep track or keep score. Trying to go tit for tat is a recipe for unnecessary unhappiness. Both have to try their best but if you try tallying it up and keeping score you will be unhappy and unloving. You aren't 50/50, you both have to be all in.