Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor. —Alexis Carrel
Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. —Charles Dickens
You can get excited about the future. The past won't mind. —Hillary DePiano

I hope that your Christmas season has and continues to be, as Odysseus said of Alcinous’s banquet, “something like perfection."

If it has, keep the momentum going.

If it has not, heed the wise words of St. Benedict: “Always we begin again.”

As we close yet another chapter in the books of our respective lives, I encourage you to enter this new year with the energy and enthusiasm that gratitude begets.

After all, in order to be great you must first be grateful.

I am grateful to you, dear reader, and the thousands just like you that have read the seventy-one pieces I published during our most recent trip around the sun.

I hope that this is the year that you show up.

The year that you change your life for the better.

That you turn maybe into definitely.

That your someday becomes yesterday.

That idk becomes lfg.

That you stop asking if and start asking how.

After all, today—no, this very moment—is the youngest you will ever be. If not now, when?

Life is but a long, meandering path to death. The destination is certain though the journey is not.

To that end, I pose one simple question: What do you want the most in 2025?

When answering, be specific and be precise,

When acting, be relentless and get after it.

Without further ado, below I share 2024’s five most read pieces alongside a favorite excerpt from each. I invite you to read any that speak to you in preparation for another year of learning and loving.

5) When

When did you wake up?

When did you realize that there was a lot more than meets the eye?

When did you realize…

That your only security in life was yourself?

That no one was coming to save you?

That you were not immune from history, but living inside of it?

That forever was just a litany of nows?

That here was just there without the T?

That nobody knew anything?

That everyone was just doing as best they could with what they had?

That there was nothing new under the sun?

That everything was a copy of a copy of a copy?

That there was no later?

That this was later?

Read More Here

4) The Ozempification of Everything

The Easy Button attacks society much like cancer does a healthy body: it saps all strength, grows unchecked, gradually takes over, and requires intense, invasive treatment (if it can be cured at all).

This seems like a canary in the coal mine. As the timeless adage goes, "Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.”

It leads to a society of pretenders, not practitioners, of LARPers, not leaders (as my friend Regina Gerbeaux so eloquently put it) and strangles at birth the resiliency, creativity, courage, and more that imbue the “the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes” who move society forward.

We already see examples of this today:

Everyone wants to be a founder, no one wants to struggle to make payroll every month.
Everyone wants to be a veteran, no one wants to cradle a friend's lifeless body in a far off land.
Everyone wants to be a hero, no one wants to run into a burning building.
Everyone wants to be an author, no one wants to edit a fifty-thousand word manuscript for the umpteenth time.
Everyone wants to be an athlete, no one wants to run just-one-more windsprint.
Everyone wants to be a podcaster, no one wants to have a conversation that means something.

When appearances are everything, society lacks depth.

Read More Here

3) The Passing Present of Parents

The love of a parent is a lot like oxygen: it’s abundant, life-giving, free, flammable, and only noticed when in short supply or gone entirely. We neither deserve it nor can we live without it…

The below construction attempts to capture the essence of this subtle progression:

One Year Old: Mom and Dad?
Four Years Old Mom and Dad know everything.
Eight Years Old: Mom and Dad will know!
Eleven Years Old: Maybe Mom and Dad don’t know?
Thirteen Years Old: Mom and Dad have no idea.
Sixteen Years Old: I know that Mom and Dad know nothing.
Eighteen Years Old: What the hell do Mom and Dad know?
Twenty-Two Years Old: I know. Mom and Dad don’t.
Twenty-Five Years Old: Wow, Mom and Dad really do know a thing or two.
Thirty Years Old: Mom and Dad will know.
Forty Years Old: How the hell did Mom and Dad know?

Read More Here

2) The OnlyFans Generation

The “creators” on OnlyFans are selling the very rope by which they are slowly being hanged. Their bodies have become a commodity—mere digital flesh on offer to the highest bidder. They are nursing a serpent that will, in time, devour their hearts.

Who truly pays the price?

Is it the seller? Her future self? Her body? Her mind? Her soul? Her potential spouse and/or children?

Or is it the men who buy, feed, and sustain this bestial behavior…

OnlyFan’s commodification of desire and imitation of intimacy are antithetical to the human experience, and fulfillment of these typically requires social interactions and vulnerability. OnlyFans removes any and all risk inherent to gratification, making it only contingent on payment.

Worse still, this sinister transaction makes men behave more like wolves than human beings. It teaches them that women are mere pieces of meat at which to oogle, salivate, and then devour whole…

A generation lost to lust, apathy, and spiritual emptiness is not only tragic, it’s dangerous. It adds yet another dimension to the demographic and moral crises unfolding in the United States and across the West.

Read More Here

1) Revenge of the Regular Joe

These men and women are tired. It is not just a physical fatigue, but an emotional, spiritual, bone-deep one.

These men and women do not like being looked down on, condescended to, forced to live in a way that doesn’t align with their beliefs or conform to their reality.

These men and women are the “garbage” and the “deplorables.” Those in power treat them as disposable: something to be used once every two to four years before throwing them out.

These men and women are cut from every cloth. They hail from every race and ethnicity and gender and credo and creed. They know that inflation does not discriminate and the mighty greenback sees no color.

These men and women are silent not because they’re apathetic, but because they’re working. They don’t have time to wring their hands, respond to polls, or engage in performative online discourse.

These men and women are overworked and underpaid. They work hard for every dollar and cent because they can’t buy milk or eggs or gas with vibes or joy.

These men and women are hurting. They suffer from a deep, dark, constant pain that neither Advil nor OxyContin can ameliorate.

Their days are full of ennui and listlessness and lethargy. These feelings are like oxygen: invisible, but omnipresent and smothering.

You can hear almost hear them shouting Eminem’s lyrics: I ain't that mad though, I just don't like being lied to…

Democrats wanted to have their cake and to eat it too; regular men and women just wanted something to eat.

In this case, they decided that revenge was a dish best served orange.

Read More Here

Lastly, if you read just one more piece of mine for the rest of your life, make it Standing Firm.