alec burns

Men, in this terrain, face a silent crisis. The traditional script (to protect, to provide, to repress) has expired, but no coherent replacement has emerged. Emotional illiteracy, once a survival tactic, now breeds relational confusion. Many men are asked to be vulnerable without having been taught how, to show up without a map. They are told to... See more

"I love what say about shame,

16:43

I'm curious why you didn't mention men."

16:45

And I said, "I don't study men."

16:47

And he said, "That's convenient."

16:50

(Laughter)

16:53

And I said, "Why?"

16:54

And he said, "Because

you say to reach out,

16:57

tell our story,

16:59

be vulnerable.

17:02

But you see those books you just signed

for my wife and my three... See more

The Velvet Queen

I encountered the fine features of the spirit of the rocks.

Its image

slipped under my eyelids

and lived within me.

Closing my eyes, I saw its haughty feline face,

its features tapering into a delicate, terrible muzzle.

I’d seen the snow leopard.

I’d stolen fire

and I carried within me the embers.

I’d learned that patience was a supreme... See more

“We ate well and cheaply and drank well and cheaply and slept well and warm together and loved each other.”

When you choose to walk, you choose not to pursue immediate gratification or even comfort but simply to expand the number of things that might happen to you. Walking invests in the potentiality of your experience with almost no promise of tangible reward at all, which is something like being alive.