Every year, I write myself an essay of gratitude on Thanksgiving.

This year, I think I am too nerve wracked by anxiety to string anything philosophical together.

I’m a little risk averse. And I’m kind of afraid of heights. Yet somehow, I’ve never been afraid of taking great leaps. It’s the thrill of the unknown. The possibility that I will come across something I’ve never seen before. The opportunity to pull off some piece of old self and reveal something new and […]

Birthdays are the one day of the year where we can ask for – perhaps even demand, as long as it isn’t in the style of Veruca Salt – the things that will bring us great joy and delight, even (and especially) if they are a little absurd, without any question of utility or aesthetic taste.

“Daniel – you seem to often know what the right thing is in a given situation. So why is it that you still then elect do the opposite, i.e. dumb shit?”

The preliminary task I had set for myself was among one of the most monumental (and needlessly pressure-filled) objectives I’d ever contrived:

FIND YOUR PURPOSE.

As it turns out, creating authentic and sustainable change is an arduous, laborious and often painful process.

It’s a lot like pulling weeds, in fact.

Walking down Park Avenue one balmy spring day, I realized that I was miserable.

Worse, I realized that this feeling of misery had been there for a long time. Three, maybe four years. I just hadn’t been able to put a name to it until that moment.