I lost my best friend of twenty plus years last week, this is everything I’m thinking and feeling today
Last week, my best friend in the entire world lost his life to drugs at the age of only 35. He left behind a 17-year-old daughter, who lost her mother to a tragic car accident when she was just a baby, as well as a 7-month-old baby boy and girlfriend who is now a single mother. So his death is a loss that has understandably more or less consumed his circle of close friends, family, and loved ones this week — myself included.
I’ve lost a lot of people close to me at early ages but this one cuts deep…
There’s nothing cultural about it
Imagine a politically correct Archie Bunker, who got along swimmingly with his Son-In-Law and never made an off-color joke. You’d have no show.
In turn, you’d have no George Jefferson or Weezy.
No George Jefferson, who regularly used the word honky — a phrase I don’t believe has ever truly offended anyone in their right mind, ever — and like Archie, spewed lewd remarks about one group or another in almost every episode of the hit sitcom he starred in.
No George Jefferson, no Archie Bunker, and nothing of much value either.
We’re left with bland art and reruns of…
The power of silence provides a profound sense of clarity and allows us to do our best thinking
The unhealthy brand of the “hustle” mentality made popular on the internet through toxic-entrepreneur culture and this obsession with overworking ourselves to the point of exhaustion is slowly but surely eating away at the state of our mental health and overall well-being.
According to www.healthline.com — 16.2 million adults in America alone, reported having a major depressive episode in a given year. That is roughly seven percent of the country.
This is just adults, in a country where it is becoming increasingly common to prescribe antidepressants to our children. …
Please, let me explain.
The older I get and friends of mine have children who are now the age we were when we became friends — the more I reflect on just how abnormal so much of our youth was, as well as how much of it was of our own making.
Don’t get me wrong, I was never one to blame others for my problems or circumstances and I’ve been well aware of how many of those I faced growing up were of my own making for quite some time now — but I don’t think even I realized how much chaos I…
And why you should get to know the business you’re in
If you ask any seasoned professional athlete, musician, or almost any other performer who has been in their industry awhile what advice they would give younger generations coming up behind them, who want to do what they do, almost all of them will suggest getting to know the business end of the profession — and treating it like a business as well.
This is because when you grow up playing a sport, instrument, or doing whatever else it is you love for free — and purely for the love of it — too often those who are fortunate enough to…
Not quite an open letter to Generation Z from a bothered and aging millennial
You know, I initially took to Facebook to address the issues I have with your generation, Gen Z — but not only did it feel like posting a single status on the platform wouldn’t suffice, but it also occurred to me most of you don’t spend much time there nowadays anyhow. Now, while I don’t fault you for that, there’s plenty I blame and resent you for — or at least a majority of you — and I figured this was the healthiest outlet and tallest platform I have to express it all.
To be clear and just so there…
As a culture and for the culture.
Not long ago, the word hustler tended to have a negative connotation attached to it. The first definition I recall assigning to the word myself was a person who conned, swindled, or schemed others out of valuables or assets. Those are the images the word subconsciously brought to mind when I was young, anyway.
The 1961 classic film ‘The Hustler’ starring Paul Newman may have played a part in how we as a society perceived and defined who and what a hustler was. Newman plays a small-time pool shark who uses his talent to target unsuspecting strangers out of money…
And that’s for having the audacity to refer to myself as even one of the three, as of late.
I just reread the last thing I published and wondered at what point, I thought the world or anyone in it would find it even remotely unique or intriguing?
I literally didn’t make it through the entire re-read — and I wrote it. I lived through it. My reality created it. The same reality I wake up to each and every God-Forsaken, pandemic-dampened day.
So forgive me for not wanting to once again glance it all over, via a mediocre piece of writing. One I literally have no recollection of writing, nonetheless.
But you see, this piece of writing is…
But it’s got nothing to do with unrealistic beauty expectations — just a long list of personal ones instead
I don’t want a girlfriend or wife. I want a partner in crime. A Bonnie to my Clyde. Someone who calls me out on my bullshit in private and defends my social chicanery in public. She’d appreciate I use phrases like social chicanery and would read my writing but not force me to talk about it. She’d know real writers have no interest in talking about their writing.
I want a woman who I love so much it scares me. One who never forces me to question if the feeling is mutual. …
I’ve always been an ‘open book’ in my writing — here are some reflections on that now that the entire world will soon be able to open an actual book of my writing
Writing has always been one of few things that comes naturally to me and with complete confidence. I was doing it long before I was ever paid for it and would continue to even if I never made another red cent for doing so.
From an early age, any schoolwork or projects of mine involving writing stuck out to teachers and other adults in my life. I never really put much stock in their compliments, I just kind of thought they were being nice.
Then our entire graduating class from grade school was forced to write graduation speeches, three of…
Brian Brewington
Writing About the Human Condition, via My Thoughts, Observations, Experiences, and Opinions — Founder of Journal of Journeys and BRB INC ©
