Dear Friends,
Thanks for signing up for my emails from The Row House Road Show!
I don’t know about you, but I subscribe to only a few such emails myself, preferring to read as much from paper products as possible so as to keep my eyes from bugging out and to remind myself I am not a non-fungible token but a living, corporeal, organic creature.
But here we are, communicating via machines that at one time (the 70’s, Baby), we might’ve mistaken for elaborate Lite Brites.
Who’s to say they’re not? And what does this have to do with the Olympics in Tokyo? I’ll let that go for a minute as you levitate in suspension.
Back to the commencement: Here’s what to expect from my dispatches:
Faces: I’ll be introducing you to people that I fancy you should know about. These will be old and new friends I meet up with throughout the next year who fascinate me in some way. It could be some kind of culture they are creating, it could be their smashing looks, or it could be a simple act of faith I find worth sharing.
Places: I’ll be visiting a bunch of different spots and doing much reading in the area of the built environment. I’m sure this will prove to be a powerful concoction. If not, I have a back log of observations to pull from. Place is one of my favorite subjects, as you may well know, especially when stirred together with history, sociology, philosophy, or theology. Make mine a double-shot, please.
Amazements: (Spell Check just learned a new one). This third category will be my opportunity to curate some surprises along the way by way of reportage, natural beauty, or perhaps the occasional palindrome I come up with. Have I told you about Rev. Lover’s Revolver? Maybe one day I will.
And last, but not least, I will offer to the dedicated reader, likely at the bottom of some posts, tomses: Pronounced “Tom says” and modeled after Pascal’s magisterial work Penses, meaning “thoughts” in French. Like old Blaise’s scraps of paper thrown into a shoe box for a later publication that never happened in his lifetime because he died at age 39 like two other notable Christian heors of mine, namely Flannery O'Connor and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, these fragments will run the gamut of just about anything I’m thinking about or want to develop. Like, for instance, “How can I write shorter sentences?” You’ll also get a little poetry, rants, raves, and hare-brained schemes, as The Dude called them.1
There you have it. The Row House Board, bless them, have asked me to send such dispatches every other week at least, but I have a feeling my fingers will be busy on they keys more than that. I can’t promise not to flood your inbox.
But love is free. So freely delete as an act of love if you don’t want to stare at the screen. I feel your pain.
Or freely read. That’d be awesome too.
And remember, you can reply anytime. I’d love to hear from you!
Seriously,
Tom
PS If you have “an Olympic-sized swimming pool,” that really is something to boast about. I mean, I’ve seen them on TV, and maybe up close once too. Impressive. Get out and enjoy it with this weather. I’m free to come over. I just got a new suit from J. Crew.
The Dude here referring to my dad, Dartt M. Becker, who abides in spirit amongst all who knew him.