October 7th, 2019
This may be one of the worst days of her life, but she has had an amazing life so far so everything is relative.
Best. Day. Ever.
Great Power
October 3rd, 2019
Will Smith and I are on the same wavelength.
I had been thinking about writing a post about the difference between fault and responsibility lately, and then I saw a video of his yesterday in which he perfectly describes what I was going to say. That smug ass. To sum it up: sometimes things happen in your life that is nobody’s fault. What you do when those things happen, however, is your responsibility. Regardless of whose fault it is.
This all sounds basic but, somehow, it’s not. The lack of understanding of these two principles is the underlying cause of most our world’s problems. Personal, global, social, political — nobody wants to shut the fuck up, put their fingers down and take responsibility for their actions.
Harshly put? Maybe. Truly felt? Absolutely.
We live in a world where our memes are the new projection. We recognize our faults — like we always have, through self-reflection, through discussion, through art — and then instead of dealing with them, we deflect on a social media level. The deflection isn’t new; the format is and is widely accepted, no matter what is wrong with any of us.
You go to a restaurant that represents your internal life. You sit down at a table and you recognize the menu laying on top. You recognize the menu — but you never pick it up to read it. Because that would require effort, and that would lead you to the truth about what’s in this restaurant, for better or for worse.
If I didn’t describe you: fantastic. You live in a world of honesty, and you want to know who you are, defects and all. But, unfortunately, a lot of us don’t or can’t pick it up. And instead of even facing that truth, we trivialize it. We find a meme that represents our shame and we share it instead of fixing it.
It is our responsibility to fix the faults of nobody.
This has been weighing heavily on me lately because I feel like in my world, I’m around a lot of folk who don’t want to be where they are.
And I just want to sigh and say: it is your responsibility to either change things and move on to someplace new, or to make where you are right now better.
Even if it’s not your fault.
Because every moment is your responsibility.
Fall, With You I Fall So Fast
September 27th, 2019
My brain is probably backwards, but I’ve always felt like fall is a beginning.
I think most people assign spring as the season of something new. But for me, the heat death of summer has always signified endings. The end of friendships. The end of romances. The end of freedom.
Because where we live, winter is when you need to be sharp. You don’t simply stumble through a tough winter; you prepare for one, you learn from one, you grow through one.
And winter is so much more exciting than summer. There’s the lights and the sounds and the feeling that we collectively get that we should be better people, that we should care more; and if we’re not and if we don’t, there’s a new year right around the corner when we can try again, with fresh hearts and fresher snow.
I think fall feels new because of how it breathes. The air feels like it’s being cold born through your lungs for the first time, like nobody else had warmed up the oxygen before you got a sip. It’s not the heavy, recycled breaths of other seasons; it’s newly conditioned air from the stars being fed into the dark sky that visits earlier every day.
Fall make me feel poetic because it lacks pretention. It’s bold and it’s beautiful and it doesn’t care what you call it because it knows it’s art.
My brain is definitely backwards if you consider fall objectively. It is not a beginning.
But fall shakes the heart instead and makes you believe that something is coming. Something big and bright and electrifying.
Something new.
Believe
September 24th, 2019
Whenever you make a decision, you have to balance logic and intuition. I mean, you don’t have to. But, usually, when you don’t is when you make a bad decision.
Sometimes you look at all the facts and they add up, but something doesn’t feel right. And sometimes what you want to do makes absolutely no sense, but you’ve never felt more right about something in your entire life.
When I feel good about it, and I think good about it, is when I make my best decisions.
Because if it ends up being a good choice, I feel like everything is right with the universe. The stars are aligned and all that magical jazz. And if it all goes wrong, I find it easier to want to pick myself back up and fix it, because I know that I was going to end up running in this direction anyway. Because I felt good about the decision in the first place.
Sometimes you have to wait. That is a decision in itself.
Making pros & cons lists is a way people decide things all the time. In fact, I feel like every TV show ever has featured a character who needs to make a difficult, impossible choice, who spends an episode making a list, only to have the decision made for them before they can decide.
Sometimes a decision you think you have to make won’t be yours to decide at all.
And that can be either a relieving or terrifying thought, depending on your perspective. If you believe in fate, in a plan, in a higher power, this news is wonderful because you know that life has a way of course-correcting itself. Certain things will happen no matter what you do. If you don’t — if you think life is a random collection of events, all neutral to purpose or reason — well, the realization that you’re not in control the way you think you are is a tough pill to swallow. A pill that gets spit up again and again, littering the ditches of spiritual highways everywhere.
This is my long way of saying: believe in something.
I don’t care what it is.
Believe in one thing or many. Believe in something that makes you or this place better. Believe in it so you feel good, think good and make good decisions.
I’m writing this because I need to hear it right now. And I bet someone else might, too.
Be Stupid
September 22nd, 2019
This post is just for me. I’m putting it here in case I ever forget and I need to find it.
Everyone has their ineffable qualities that make them who they are. Everybody knows somebody who, when you’re asked why you like them, you sigh and say, “I don’t know. There’s just something about them.”
We spend a lot of time trying to figure out who we are. What the formula that makes up what we are consists of. And we end up short, because of the ineffable-ness.
I’m trying to figure out what makes me different behind the table. What sets me apart. And I feel like I can recognize a strong trait:
I have no idea what I’m doing.
So, hold on. It sounds like I’m describing a weakness. But listen.
Because I have no idea what I’m doing, I am inherently honest. I don’t know how to lie behind the table, because I’m not good enough to do that. I’m also a terrible liar, which helps.
I don’t have an ultra-slick presentation. I know what I’m trying to say and what I want to do, and I tell the story I’m trying to tell, but it’s a little different every time. Because it’s not manufactured; I’m barely built. I’m growing and sometimes, when the sun or moon is in a strange spot in the sky, you can see it happen before your eyes.
I need to remember this. Because I feel like this is the key to connecting.
When I meet you, I am not trying to sell you anything. Not for money. I want you to feel like I do, to think differently; honestly, when you’re around me, I want you to be excited about something.
To be passionate is brave. Because to show you care about something is brave, and to not is not. I always want to be brave, even when I look stupid.
I look stupid often. And I think that’s another key.
Like I said, this post is for me. For future me. If I ever get tired, or jaded. Or sound overproduced. If I fail to see how amazing life is right in front of me. I need to remember:
Be excited.
Be passionate.
Be brave.
Be stupid.
Do You Believe In Magic?
September 17th, 2019
People are fucking magic.
It feels weird to feel compelled to make a post about this, but it so often seems like we live in a world where all we do is complain about each other. Our friends, our families, our co-workers, people we’ve never even met. If you talk to someone for longer than a minute, odds are they will say something negative about another human being.
So I am here to remind you: people are fucking magic. They will make you smile, they will make you laugh, they will share high fives and hugs and kisses, they will take care of you, they will listen to you, they will miss you when you’re gone, they will say nice things and tell great stories about you, they will love you, they will save your life, again and again and again.
If you let them.
But, you argue, not in my life. Maybe, in your life, people just let you down. Maybe they hurt you without remorse. Maybe they don’t care.
Those are the wrong people.
And I’m here to remind you of something else: there are 7.5 billion more out there, and I will guarantee it with my life that there are people out there who will be my second paragraph for you.
What’s great is that if you don’t believe in God, people are real. And if you do believe in God, He lives in people and becomes real. There is no reason to not believe in people. There are reasons to not believe in a person. Believe me, I know. But not people.
And that is all we really need. Something to believe in. The reason you get out of bed in the morning. And you can start small. Start with your dog. (I know I do.)
But eventually — even if you’ve lost your faith before — believe in people.
Because they are remarkable. YOU are remarkable.
You are fucking magic.
Miracle
September 11th, 2019
Keep going until the miracle happens.
I hear this or minor variations of this all the time with the company I keep. It’s an abstract thing; a mysterious phrase that makes me want it every time I hear it.
It basically means: don’t quit. Not if what you’re doing matters. Even if what you’re going through is hard, or it hurts, or is possibly impossible — don’t stop trying until you get your miracle.
I can hear you asking: what, exactly, is “the miracle”? Nobody can tell you but you. Though you will absolutely know it when it happens.
For me, it’s the moments where I know in my heart that everything is going to be all right. Because I don’t always feel like that. I’m a messy ball of stress, regret and anxiety on the inside, and my miracle is when, for a moment, all of that can take a rest and ride backseat to a pure drive of bliss at the wheel. It’s a minute where I can take my eyes off the road and stare at the sun, because I’m not scared of what’s in front of me.
It’s a fucking miracle.
So don’t give up. Not until you get there. Because you will. After working really hard on something — on anything — a miracle will happen.
And I hope it’s everything you never knew you needed.
Near Deer Experience
September 9th, 2019
2:28 am. I just almost died.
Okay, that’s dramatic. But I did just almost hit a deer on the way home. And not just any deer; the most beautiful, haunting fawn I have ever seen. It had fallen behind its mother, and I saw its pale figure as I was screeching to a dead ass stop in the middle of County Rd. 42.
The deer are okay. I’m okay. But as I was wide-eyed praying to not kill this baby Bambi, my brain thought: “I wish I had done more nice things today.”
And since I don’t want any of you to have similar regrets if you find yourself in life-threatening peril today, I made a list of eight nice things you can do on this Manic Monday.
- Pay someone a compliment. But make it a compliment that is really particular to that person and wouldn’t mean the same to anyone else.
- You know that “thank you” you were meaning to write or thing of gratitude you were wanting to say? Write or say it today!
- Do a chore you really hate. Better yet, do someone else’s chore. For bonus points, don’t tell them you did it and have them mystified over the greatness of the universe.
- Give a moment of your time and undivided attention to love a dog or cat or guinea pig (or someone else’s dog or cat or guinea pig).
- Put someone on positive blast on your social media today. Whether it’s your lifelong friend you just want to gush about, or a shout out to your pal who runs a business, or a nice review of something you love, make it public.
- Send a text or message to someone you haven’t spoken to in a while to see how they’re doing. Use this post as your excuse. I can take the heat.
- Give someone a high five or hug that makes them say, “Whoa.”
- Look yourself in the eyes — in the mirror, in your phone’s camera, in the ocean if that’s a thing you have by you — and tell yourself how much you love you, how amazing it is that you exist and how insanely incredible this life is.
You can do one of these things, or all eight, or one of them eight times or really just treat this list as a buffet. Add your own things. Subtract the ones you can’t or don’t want to do.
Happy Monday, everybody.
Keep your head up and eyes open on these roads.
Reintroduction
September 6th, 2019
Some people need no introduction. Some people beg to be reintroduced. So whether you’ve never even heard of me or you feel like you know me intimately, this is my #fridayintroductions — and maybe we’ll all learn something new today.
My name is Dennis. I’m the guy in this photo. Not the guy with his back to you. I’m the guy sitting at the table, working on his dream.
I was born in the 80’s and am a lifelong comics and pop culture fan. Both have saved my life countless times. I’ve expressed myself artistically in a lot of different ways over the years — I released a trio of albums when I was a puppy, I started publishing my own books soon after with the help of Kickstarter, I started Awesome For Hire — and I always wanted my strange journey to lead to comics. In August of 2018, I released my first comic book: The Flying Squirrel, which is part of a flawed superhero series called The Weirdos. In February of this year, I released two more books in the series: The Sketch and The Blue-Ringer. And finally, just this August, I released the fourth and fifth books: The Wait, and (the grand finale!) The Weirdos. I write, draw and produce all of my own work. I went to art school for a minute, said, “Nah, I’m good,” and am mostly self-taught. I write books for adults — that look like they were drawn by a child.
I’m always getting better, though! I write about people, with problems, who have potential. My books explore adult themes — alcoholism, cancer, depression, mental health, physical illness and more — with a hopeful, realistic and fantastical lens.
The back of my business card has my motto: “Always Love.” It means to try to make your decisions based on love, as opposed to fear, or hate. I really believe in that.
I love my dog, I love art — and I ❤ you. And that’s it.
Give Fucks
September 5th, 2019
I’mma shout this real loud for all the cool kids slouching in the back of the bus:
Caring about things and people is the most attractive quality a person can have.
I know when you’re young it doesn’t seem like it, because caring about stuff is lame and you are desperate to not be lame. And I know when you’re old it doesn’t seem like it, because by then you know caring about things is pointless, because the world is ruined and has jaded your weary soul.
I know you love to exclaim it often and like to share memes about having no fucks left to give, but whether you realize it or not, people who actually care are the reason you still get up in the morning. And not caring about anything is the least attractive thing you can be.
The funny thing is, even if you think the universe IS empty and pointless and nothing really matters — that’s what actually makes everything you do matter! If you don’t have to do anything, then every time you do something you are creating life where there was none. And if you don’t have to care about anyone, every time you do you’re creating love.
So give fucks. Give hugs. Be attractive.
And do it because of, or in spite of, our infinite universe.
The Den 