January 3./Monkey Man

There’s an expression that has rolled around my head for a few years now. It says that ‘I’m just a monkey man, wearing a monkey mask, doing monkey things’. When I heard it, it sank into me. The expression called out my tendency to confuse the masks I wore or the actions I did as…

January 1./ New Year’s Promises

While it’s a cliché, each New Year’s day reminds me of how quickly time passes by. It’s rare to have an uneventful year and 2022 was no exception. Last spring, my partner’s mother went through hospice and my parents visited me in Florida. I made a trip back to Minnesota in April to visit my…