The refrigerator at my childhood home has for many years mimicked a fallen tree in forest. Time passes in a visible record as the surface cedes any visibility to other forms.

Rectangular school photos sprouted and gave way to larger rectangles—graduation announcements and wedding invitations—and the variety of shapes and colors of magnets from various U.S. states.

The constant: a single sheet of paper on the upper right corner, a short essay titled "The Station" that explains why we should cherish the current moment.

"It isn`t the burdens of today that drive [us] mad. It is the regrets over yesterday and the fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves who rob us of today."

Those thieves lurk closer than ever as we confront another covid surge, and that theme intrigued me. Hollywood binged on the heist genre in the early 2000s with cars, money, more money, gold, and money again. In the process, life took its notes from (stolen) art.

Movies romanticize swindling, and I'll raise my hand for being entertained. However, written narratives lend themselves to nuances. Or at least the quirks that don't support a $100 million dollar budget. How about that bridge in Akron?

I compiled a short list of compelling reads for our long winter nights (beach material for you in the southern hemisphere). My favorite story reminds us that theft is about attention, though not always in the ways we expect.

Other objects of desire >>>

My advice for 2022: don't let your fears purloin your potential in the year ahead. Do, do, do "because explaining things / is never as interesting as wanting them."
 

#

This newsletter was written on the traditional lands of the Peoria, Kickapoo, Potawatomi, and Sac & Fox.