Out searching all summer for the preposition
No amount of sophistication is going to allay the fact that all your knowledge is about the past and all your decisions are about the future.
- Ian Wilson, former GE executive
Am I willing to lean into the future even if…? October 21, 2025 near Sun Valley, Idaho.
Listening to…
“Harvest Time (YouTube)” by Pharoah Sanders - chill, hypnotic jazz. He’s from Arkansas.
Note…
I have recently been super inspired by some things so if reading about that bike race ain’t your thing, there are some really great things below.
About the bike race in September…
…the short answer is it was fantastic! So much camaraderie along the way and the weather was beautiful and the bike worked great and I felt great and had to hike up Phifer Creek trail and that stressed out my left knee pretty badly but a dude was at the top with water and fruit juice and a big jar of pickles which were so delicious at sunrise and about 90 miles in after riding all night with the littlest of light in front of me like a meditation and then a sloppy descent into Featherville as they were grading the roads(!) and a beautiful ride along the Boise River and great conversation with other riders at the hot springs that afternoon when it was ironically too hot to ride and a little push further until the crepuscular moment after sunset where I camped in the dirt where it got down to 41 degrees and morning came after sleeping hard and plenty of water and got riding in the quiet and cool morning but then missed the turn to Dollarhide so climbed the wrong mountain the entire time wondering why my computer routing was off (duh) and then the sickening feeling seeing the sign pointing the direction I just rode to Ketchum and a fast too fast downhill ride when the left knee stopped working and then a slow slow hike, stretch, ride, stretch, hike the 11 miles up Dollarhide and a little rain made it cool and lovely and coasted into Ketchum on Warm Springs from the summit and that was the end of the ride for me and I loved every minute, except that the left knee wasn’t really working and I hope to ride more of it next September…
I had some huge learning moments along the way and mostly that I’m never prepared for what’s next if I’m engaging with life and trying new things and have to surrender some likely false idea that I know anything at all because until I get out and ride (make photographs, show up for work at the bike shop, go to a concert, send an email to folks, and, and…) I have no idea what I don’t know like that the handlebar bag may slip and rub the front tire so I’m glad I had voile straps…
I was looking for the preposition all summer: surrender to, surrender from, surrender for… Prepositions show our relationship to objects, not necessarily our perspective—two weeks before the ride I realized, for me, I had to surrender into the moment of the ride—there was no amount of knowledge (the past (see quote above)) that could fully prepare me for the ride (the future).
This is an overly quick articulation of how big finding this preposition was for me. So it goes.
These things recently inspired me…
John Giorno’s “Dial-a-Poem” is back…as a website! It started in 1969 as a call-in-for-a-poem service(?). Super cool how technology brings new ways of interacting with poetry, even shaping how poems are made.
The lithophone - that’s right, it’s a musical instrument made in a cave from hollow stalactites.
The National Book Award - finalists were recently announced.
Art Work: On the Creative Life - by Sally Mann, (book) just came out, I’m really digging it, it’s quirky, more memoirish than, well, it’s a lot of her stories about how her life informs her art from inspiration to workflows.
These movies…
…are good, fun, and don’t totally suck.
Practical Magic - with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. A little mystery, a little romance, a little about family, and a little magic.
The Fall Guy - Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, directed by David Leitch, so much fun…and there’s a real story here too. “Engage your core…”
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - the one with Ben Stiller (not the original with Danny K) is about finding oneself and getting out and living life. Mitty daydreams through his day at a corporate job until he is otherwise inclined to engage with life differently. The editing and transitions are so, so good, and the cinematography and acting. Directed by Stiller and way underrated.
Recently from the photography journal…
Along a little river in Central Idaho - October 21, 2025
What once was - October 21, 2025 (NOTE: I’m working with Squarespace on why they’re overcompressing these images…)