I think I\u2019ve been accused of having no ideology, but I\u2019ve got plenty! And sometimes I just go with the algorithm. I like thinking that something knows what the heck is going on.<\/p>\n
And I must be doing better. My old psychologist texted to talk shit about my favorite football team.<\/p>\n
I say, hey, I\u2019m not drinking, still, at all.<\/p>\n
He says, your team really was trash this season.<\/p>\n
I say, you told me once it would take three years to get my shit fully together and you were right.<\/p>\n
He says, your guys better draft well or you\u2019ll be trash again next year.<\/p>\n
This is talk therapy, something I was encouraged to pursue, and do enjoy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Instead of working on his research paper about the dangers of space debris (my idea), the student-athlete I tutor, Wes, calls up his college recruiting highlight reel on YouTube. It has about two thousand views and there\u2019s some nice one- handed catches.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re the man,\u201d I say. \u201cNow back to space junk.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWait,\u201d he says and types my name into the search bar.<\/p>\n
I predate the site, but somehow there\u2019s a video of my wife, Grace, telling me she\u2019s pregnant with Gabe. There\u2019s me giving a complicated martini order to a teenage waitress at Noodle Bowl. Me butchering a skinned rabbit in our kitchen for stew. Me waking up from surgery with a joke already prepared for the nurse. Me failing to change a flat on a Louisiana overpass. Me signing up for Twitter. Me skipping metaphysics class so I could get a Ghostface Killah autograph. Me loading the dishwasher, me loading the dishwasher, me loading the dishwasher.<\/p>\n
In the months we\u2019ve been working together, Wes has probably put on twenty pounds of muscle. It appears, slowly but surely. Unlike his research paper, which is just blinking back at us at a dismal 300 words.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t you see it? You don\u2019t get it?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now I\u2019ve brightened my phone and cleaned my metaphorical fish tank. I redirect and incentivize. I\u2019m committed to truth and depth.<\/p>\n
Was it cruel of Wes to reduce my life to clips on You Tube? We are not friends, but still, he learns the Japanese are making wooden satellites to combat the problem of his essay. He\u2019s almost in tears looking at a map of what\u2019s all orbiting Mother Earth. He mourns for a minute the potential end of space travel. He\u2019s getting it. The work expands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWait,\u201d he says and types my name into the search bar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","writer-sean-ennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16649"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16764,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16649\/revisions\/16764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrbullbull.com\/newbull\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}