Blog
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Pictured: Robert Pirsig and his son Chris in 1972.
For about thirty years I’ve wanted to pay homage to Zen and the Art… by writing my own version of it. Instead of motorcycles playing the role of technology, in my homage baseball plays the role of the pure essence of life.
The Beach Boys Lied
Growing up on the Jersey Shore, my teenaged summers mostly revolved around going to the beach all day getting enormous sunburns and nights on the boardwalk in Seaside bumming cigarettes off the girls who were down for the summer from Staten Island.
I Ate a Tomato…
Those tomatoes were not just the result of the work we did to grow them, they weren’t really tomatoes at all. They were the result of the entire universe, in essence they were the universe.
Who’s Your Ride or Die?
I didn’t use the term in A Long Walk Home, but I wish I had. Forget infatuation, lust, love and trust, being someone’s ride or die is the highest human calling. You probably won’t have more than one ride or die in your entire life, and that’s not a bad thing, otherwise the true meaning would get watered down into some trite cliché.
AI Doesn’t Have to be the Future
They promised us jetpacks, but no jetpacks. They promised us robots to make our sandwiches and clean up after us, but so far, no robots. I’ve got a Roomba, but it keeps getting stuck on things in the living room and then it beeps for help until I either go save it or it runs out of battery. So far, none of this robotic stuff is optimal.
Not Every A**hole is a Narcissist
Among other things, A Long Walk Home is a story about how narcissists can ruin the lives of others. It’s a subtle thing; a powerful manipulation of emotions the narcissist thrives on for survival. The narcissist feeds off the control they have over others, in a sense it’s what keeps them alive. Sometimes that control is kind and gentle, but it will always revert to abuse and manipulation.
Getting the Cover Just Right
Talk to Strangers
My biggest takeaway is how isolated people, especially young men, are today. The problems people face haven’t evolved (we’re all still really shitty to each other), but technology has put us all on our own private islands without a support system of friends and people who can offer advice or a sympathetic ear.
It’s Not A Baseball Book
Didn’t Make the Book: Hall of Famer Dick Allen
Didn’t Make the Book: Fenway Park
A Long Walk Home Publishing Back Story
