HEY, THIS IS ME.
Hi, My Name is Brian is my way of connecting to the world through words. It’s just a place for me to share and start conversations and think about where I fit in this crazy life. I’ve been a filmmaker, a sales manager, a business owner. I think I’ve been the most successful being a father. I’ve got plenty of failures there too, but it doesn’t feel the same as failures in other adventures. I mean sometimes it feels worse, but mainly it always feels promising and hopeful. Like I’m hopeful they will change their attitude after these teenage years. One day they asked me why I’ve never used my English degree and why I never really tried to be a writer. That hit a little too deep. The kind of sting you feel from a baseball hitting too close to your hands on an aluminum bat. How can I push them to follow their dreams if I don’t follow mine? So this is for Levi and Cooper. I love you both and am so proud of your sensitivity and humanity and I can’t wait to see how you involve yourself with the world.
How Not to Bury a Body in Missouri
If you’ve never tried to dig a hole in Southwest Missouri, I don’t recommend it, however, in the unlikely event you are trying to bury a body late at night, you should know a few things.
Coach Wilson, My Father, My Anger & Me
On February 20, 2022, I heard my wife say, “Oh, no,” sadly from the living room. “Coach Wilson died.” It was the kind of “oh, no,” that is elongated and sung from people that didn’t know him well, but knew him some and knew enough to know the world will be a little darker, a little less. That’s a life. To generate a reaction with just your name and reputation. He was my high school basketball coach, back when I lived in a world that had much more structure living a life that had an entire future ahead of it. She knew he meant a lot to me, but I had never told her the story of why.
The Day that Jamie Died, Part 1
I had just come back from college for the summer of 1991 and was working on my 2nd tour at The Waffle House where I usually worked the late shift crowd. The chaos of my childhood made me uniquely qualified to handle the drunk and starving who longed for the $4.99 All-You-Can-Eat menu.