Author Archives: g24khamr

TWO PEOPLE DIED IN THE PAST TWO WEEKS. Okay, obviously a lot more than two people. People die every day, every hour, every second. Death doesn’t take time off. What I mean is two people died this week and I miss them, but not in the same way. One of them was a neighbor forContinue reading “The Two Faces of Grief”

I’VE NEVER BEEN THAT PERSON. The one who doesn’t keep up with change. The one who eschews new technology out of some self-righteous adherence to a past that was never meant to remain static. The past IS prologue — time and time again. My job has always been to keep moving forward, to find what’sContinue reading “Battling Ageism in the Web3 Age”

This picture was taken in 1941 in Zhytomyr, Ukraine. German soldiers are surrounding Jews in the Market Square, and we all know what happened after that. My family left Zhytomyr decades earlier. I never thought about that place much, never visited, never felt like I had to. It was the Old Country, not My Country.Continue reading “You Don’t Have to Live Somewhere to Call it Home”

One year ago, in the Year That Wasn’t, I was in a hospital tent trying to breathe, in isolation trying to distract myself with bad football, trying to make it to 2021 because my God how could that be any worse. Overall this year was better, being alive not the least of the positives. WeContinue reading “The Wonder Year”

I THOUGHT THERE WOULD BE A COUCH.  I’d never been to see a therapist, but I’ve been to a shit-ton of movies and well, there’s always a couch in the movies. There’s almost always a happy ending, too, which should have been my first clue that art does not imitate life, but mocks it.  InsteadContinue reading “The Broken Parts”

I’VE ALWAYS HAD A LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE UNKNOWN. I love that it fascinates me, inspires me, drives me. But I embrace it as you would hug a porcupine — very carefully and not without a huge dose of What the Fuck Was I Thinking. I hate myself for feeling this way. Not only isContinue reading “Hugging the Porcupine”

IT’S TRADITION here at Below the Fold to share an early excerpt from the next book project. Okay not tradition in like the traditional sense, more in the “well I’ve done it before and I haven’t died from embarrassment yet so what the hell why not” sense. Plus there’s the added benefit of looking backContinue reading “Looking Ahead to “Hindsight””

THIS IS HOW IT FEELS. Not elation but relief. Not celebration but reflection. Not an end but perhaps a new beginning. Guilty verdicts for Derek Chauvin in the murder (we can now say murder) of George Floyd won’t erase centuries-old systemic racism. It won’t heal a broken America, won’t eradicate discrimination, won’t make us safer.Continue reading “This is How It Feels”

ON THE FIRST DAY I WASHED MY HANDS OF IT. Lots of soap, two “happy birthdays.” Rinse and repeat.  After the first week my daughter came home because of it; graduated college in our living room thanks to it.  For months we distanced from it, Zoomed and baked bread and watched everything on the InternetContinue reading “Speakers for the Dead”

I SEE KOBE. Not the undefendable jumper or the unapologetic swagger. Not the 81-point masterpiece or reducing opponents to pieces. Not the championships or the Larry O’Brien embrace, with Shaq at his side and champagne on his face. I see those moments too, but mostly I see Kobe shopping at Fashion Island. I see himContinue reading “I See Kobe”