Author Archives: g24khamr

“Tell a real story. Talk like a goddamn real person…stop all the countless bullshit we marketers create to make us sound more important than we really are.” I wrote that years ago, long before social media became the behemoth it is today, before the 2016 U.S. elections, before global pandemics sent us into our homesContinue reading “The Beginning of the End of Bullshit”

THE INFECTION IS SPREADING. We see it not just every day but every hour, it seems almost every minute: a quarantine here, a new case there, a sports league stopping play. It’s a disease made for the Internet age, moving at unheard of speeds, each new piece of information coming and going as quickly asContinue reading “The Other Virus”

THERE’S A REASON WHY WE READ THE NAMES OF THE 9/11 VICTIMS EVERY YEAR. Nearly 3,000 people died that day in 2001. But 3,000 means nothing — it’s just a number, far too big to comprehend. It’s a data point, a historical statistic, a question on a multiple-choice test. 3,000 doesn’t have a face orContinue reading “Murder Makes Us Small”

THE BEST THING ABOUT WRITING A BOOK IS ALSO THE WORST THING. You’re glad it’s done, it’s even hard to believe. An idea on a scrap of paper becomes a few sentences on your Notes app becomes a title page becomes a first chapter becomes more pages and more chapters and on and on until,Continue reading “The Book I’ll Never Finish”

WHAT I REMEMBER MOST ARE THE SHOES. Piles and piles of soul-filled skyscrapers, spread high and wide, the colors muted by time. All shapes and sizes, some worn and others barely used. A monument to madness.  There are images more visceral, like the emaciated men with empty stares, or ever-present dark skies, as if theContinue reading “If The Shoe Fits”

SHE WAS A DARLING LITTLE GIRL in a black and white photo, holding a tiny flower, a face blooming with innocence and wonder. I picked it up from my desk and walked to the next office, where I thanked my friend and colleague for the shot. “Your daughter is so cute,” I said. He lookedContinue reading “Fathers Belong in the Picture”

SO AN ELDERLY CHRISTIAN GRANDMA WALKS INTO A BAT MITZVAH. I know, you’re thinking “what happens next?” Does she lead the Hora? Sing Hava Nagila at the top of her lungs? Do the Electric Slide? Well yeah, sure, she pretty much did all that. But that’s not the joke. And neither was Elva Schubert. AContinue reading “Thanks For All the Sugar”

IT HAPPENS MORE OFTEN THAN I CARE TO ADMIT. I’ll put on a fresh pair of jeans and find a dollar in my pocket. I’ll smile, then sigh with the guilty resignation of a purpose unfulfilled. I’m not upset that I didn’t spend it. Nor am I happy that I “found” some money. I’m justContinue reading “A Dollar In My Pocket”

SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO LET GO. The jacket from high school that no longer fits (and stop fooling yourself, it never will.) The “lucky shirt” that has more holes than memories. The empty wine bottle you kept for 20 years because you wanted to remember, but now have no clue what. The concert ticket stub,Continue reading “A Number in the Dark”

It still happens to us, we just don’t want you to know. We don’t want to bother you. We want you to think everything is fine, because overall it is fine, it’s just fine, and you don’t have to worry. For us this is nothing. Just another day. Normal isn’t new, it isn’t special, itContinue reading “We Don’t Want You to Know”