Episode 6: This Is Me Being Uncomfortable In this episode of This Is Me Being Uncomfortable, I say “um” and “you know” a lot for the first three or four minutes, then get down to talking about depression and suicidal thoughts, why I stopped buying and bringing beer into my home, pick-up basketball, obsessive running, teaching my daughter how to play guitar, meditation, and music therapy. More
The Court In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, the basketball court in Phenix was always jammed pack, particularly on Sunday. Pick-up trucks and cars lined the hillside and there was overflow parking in the tiny football field up next to the road on the corner of Church Street and Charlotte. More
Then and Now: A Brief History of Phenix, Virginia Not to sound all back in my day about it, but Phenix, Virginia, was different back then than it is now. The likely culprit: technology. One of the biggest observations I continue to see whenever I visit home is how empty the streets are of kids. It’s like they no longer exist, as if childhood is boarded up inside the walls of one- and two-story homes, glowing screens having replaced bicycles and basketballs and games of backyard football. More
Welcome to Phenix: A Nice Place to Live There used to be a sign as you entered town that read in a big bold font, “Welcome to Phenix, Virginia: A Nice Place to Live.” When I was in high school, this sign hung above my headboard in my bedroom until one night, around 3 a.m., it came crashing down on me as I slept. More
The Ghosts of Childhood The thin, lanky figure stepped to a chink in the gray-black pavement that opened like the veins of a broken waterway, spilling horizontally across the basketball court. He bent his knees. His eyes searched for a direct line to the back of the rusted hoop, and he released a jump shot. The flick of his wrist made a popping sound as his fingers pointed straight ahead. Textbook release. More
