This is me 20 years ago. I am filming (and sleeping) in this rental house with friends. The Puffy Chair has recently premiered at Sundance. I am in a healthy relationship with the love of my life. After years of relentlessly pushing myself through the struggle, everything is finally working. I look so happy. Everyone can see it and is commenting on it.
Not long after this picture is taken is when I have a nervous breakdown. I don't see it coming. It brings me to my knees. Thankfully, the story ends well. I'm able to build myself back up with therapy, medication, exercise, consistent sleep, etc. In some ways, that breakdown was a gift to help me become the person I am now. It certainly made me a kinder, gentler father/husband/friend/collaborator/mentor. But it almost broke me.
Today is the last day of Men's Mental Health Month. Please remember that you can't always see what's going on from the outside. Sometimes it looks "happy." Check on your loved ones. Check in with yourself. And if you or someone you know is heading somewhere scary, @988Lifeline is a text/chat/call away.
Then Jesus said unto the sick, “you better have insurance.”
Then Jesus said unto the stranger, “are you here legally?”
Then Jesus said unto the hungry, “my taxes better not be paying for these loaves and fishes.”
Then Jesus said unto the poor, “this is your own fault.”
2013 UCLA played the top three TSR teams from 2013 to win their national championship, all top 25 all time:
UNC (4th all time)
LSU (10th all time)
Fullerton (23rd all time)
If Oklahoma wins the championship series in 3, it would overtake UCLA for the hardest championship path.
We look at our neighboring worlds and we see a grim warning. Venus is a runaway greenhouse hellscape, its surface hot enough to melt lead. Mars is a frozen, bone-dry desert. Earth is the anomaly,a perfectly balanced, delicate jewel where the conditions for life are miraculously just right.
Yet, we continue to treat our atmosphere as if it were an infinite dumping ground.
A fragile canopy. A destabilized climate. A global crisis.