Philippe Lazaro
OCTOBER 2016

The Overview Effect

Only a handful of people have gotten to see the Earth from outer space. But they all report a similar sensation when seeing the pale blue dot.

It’s called the Overview Effect

A few common sentiments are shared widely among those who’ve experienced the Overview Effect.

  • A sense of all things and all people being connected

  • A deeper reverence for creation and a desire to protect it

  • A recognition of borders as man-made and conflict as vain and tragic

The vastness of space around the miraculous oasis of life on Earth is humbling, but also motivating. Observers are more motivated to protect nature, unity, and humanity.

There’s little doubt the world would be a very different place if everyone could experience that moment of wonder. Physicist Brian Cox thinks all politicians should be set off into space.

Of course it’s not the most practical solution, but…

It’s why I love going places, and coming back to share stories of things that stir curiosity and hope.

Travel, nature, and storytelling can do this.

And I love it when things like food or sport or art can turn into portals that introduce us to the world at large.

Take for instance, Thomas Merton’s epiphany while out in downtown Louisville:

“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world. . . . 

This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud. . . . I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.

Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed. . . . But this cannot be seen, only believed and ‘understood’ by a peculiar gift.”

Zambian Radio Protects Wildlife

Sometimes the best solutions are the simplest ones, focused on making sure no one is left behind.

Hobbiton & Hobbitenango

I’ve had the kinda unusual pleasure of visiting Hobbiton twice! The one in New Zealand where Lord of the Rings was filmed, and the even more unexpected journey to Guatemala’s version: Hobbitenango. Here’s what to expect at each.

All in School

Today was a DAY.

All these kids are officially in school. Together.

To say this day has been long anticipated is no lie. We’re thankful for the daycare/grandma/nanny situation that’s been carrying us since 2021. But with every tuition payment, and every morning/afternoon of coordinating two drop-offs and pick-ups, we’ve eyed this August date eagerly.

It’s here and it comes with much celebration as expected, but also a little disbelief that we just closed a very wild, sweet, and chaotic chapter. Kids are young, but not-as-young, and that opens up a whole new chapter of different joys, things to figure out, and plotlines.

Even in the thick of it, I know that you don’t want to rush through any of the chapters and to take it all in. But I’ve got to say, it’s a lot easier to do all that when you aren’t spread so thin. The show goes on, lets take in some views.

Auckland! So Good They Left It Off The Map

From one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had, to the incredible glowworm caves, our time on New Zealand’s North Island was one adventure right after the next. Such a gorgeous part of the world, that somehow keeps getting overlooked by one mapmaker after the next.

I could’ve easily spent a long more time and done a lot more things in New Zealand. Wouldn’t mind a return visit one bit!

Denver Fights Food Waste

Trying to cut back on food waste is always a good idea, but props to the Denver restaurant scene for getting creative with it.

The Most Bombed Country

The most bombed country of all time is not one I would’ve initially guessed. And though the causes go back over half a century, some of those bombs are still a present day threat.

The Journey is Full of Switchbacks

I went into this year anticipating another steady year at work, some big summer travels, and the long anticipated start of having all my kids out of daycare and in the same school. Such a big win for my wallet and my daily schedule.

Then came the past few months.

An abrupt change to my professional life.

Some friends and family members facing health crises.

Financial uncertainty to go along with it all.

It was like having all your chess moves planned out, then having a big shaggy dog with no body awareness bump into the board. Which pieces are still in place? What can I recreate from memory? Where am I just taking a shot in the dark?

Disrupted plans are one thing. But I realized that the plans had changed to such a degree that the future I anticipated was being rewritten in real time.

Heading into summer, it remains a challenging year. Having gone through all this has been a big reminder that the journey is never linear.

The road’s got switchbacks, y’all.

As a teenager, my mom and I had very few heart-to-heart discussions, that makes one really stand out. She brought up the fact that every person’s life is going to take them through some disruptions. Some moments where your plans get completely derailed. Life takes a drastic turn away from where you thought things were going to go.

My mom knew what she was talking about. She referenced her own big disruption–losing my dad when I was only five. That’s one of the biggest derailments someone can face.

I’m glad that she pointed this out to me. It really does seem like every person at some point runs into a handful of big disruptions. Deaths. Divorces. Business failures. Bankruptcies. Sudden disability. Illness. It takes many forms. Some people seem to face a disproportionate amount of these.

Whenever you’re in the immediate aftermath of a big disruption, things can feel really raw. You enter a sort of survival mode while you try and get as many pieces back together as you can manage.

It’s no fun. But I think there are a few things worth remembering as you try to regain your footing.

1. Nothing is ever wasted

When you’re facing a sudden loss of some sort, it’s easy to feel a sense of futility around the space that is now vacant in your life.

About a year ago, when USAID was being shut down, and millions of federally funded research projects were being shut down, I couldn’t imagine being in the position of all those practitioners seeing their life’s work disrupted. So much progress against hunger, diseases, and poverty suddenly being wiped out.

It makes you wonder what the point of it was if it could just be whisked away.

I’d like to say that maybe the research that was started at least created a foundation of knowledge that can be built upon later. Maybe the mechanisms to eradicate poverty were learned by communities that can keep applying them. Maybe.

But I can’t say that without knowing for sure.

What I can say is that I think an act of good- even if its impact is temporary- remains an act of good. Nothing can take that away. Don’t ask me how I know that, because I’ll mostly cite the Van Gogh episode of Dr. Who as my source. But I’m still convinced that’s how it works.

I truly believe nothing ever goes to waste.

Once I made it halfway through a degree in film then stopped. Instead I switched to international studies. Now I’ve built a career in international development where… I’ve made hundreds of videos. Your past journeys get replayed in your future adventures.

2. Security is a myth

When you run into a sudden loss or disruption, I think it’s also easy to start wondering if you could’ve done something different at some point in the past to change the course of how it all unfolded.

That’s the premise of The Butterfly Effect and I’ll tell you what.

That was a terrible movie.

The plot had potential, but there were some dog-related scenes I simply cannot forgive.

Instead, you’d be better off watching that commencement speech by Jim Carrey circa 2014 where he talks about how his dad actually wanted to be a comedian.

“And so he made a conservative choice, instead. He got a safe job as an accountant. And when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job, and our family had to do whatever we could to survive.”

“I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you Love.”

What good does that serve you when you’re facing a disruption?

It probably won’t be much comfort in the moment, but it can remind you to not let the experience lead you to playing scared with the rest of your life. You now know firsthand that security is a myth. Go bold.

3. Refuse to quit

Sometimes, stubbornness can be a virtue. Not always. But sometimes.

When you’re at a point where it’s hard to see the road ahead, a steady persistence will do you wonders.

At times it probably won’t feel like persistence.

You’ll probably think to yourself, ‘what choice do I have?’

But showing up is a choice.

Sometimes, I like to process difficult disruptions by thinking of them like an episode in a TV series.

If your life was being dramatized, this is going to be that episode.

The one where something goes horribly wrong. You know something major is going to happen. Tension is turned up to eleven, and who knows how the characters are going to make it through this.

This is The Pitt. Season One. Episode Eleven. The “incident.”

For the characters in the story, things are at their absolute worse.

For the audience? That’s when I could not stop watching. I knew it was getting late, but I needed to get to that next episode!

That’s the sort of curiosity that can help you move forward. Knowing that there will be a next episode, and wanting to see it through.

Disruptions are a part of every person’s life. But keeping these things in perspective can help you navigate those switchbacks. Believe that nothing is wasted. Remember that security is a myth. And refuse to quit.

In case you’ve noticed an usually large amount of film and TV references in this piece, that’s because navigating a disruption can also include a few days of ice cream and comfort shows.

Just don’t put on The Butterfly Effect. Trust me.

Summer '26

6/1/26 – Kind of a weird experience when the unhinged Paul McCartney-themed improv set you had on a Friday night turns out to be just what you needed after a week full of good things and heavy things.

6/2/26 – And that’s a wrap on Kindergarten.

Now we’re in the era of our lives where we get ten weeks in the middle of every year of trying to figure out what to do with the kids.


6/6/26 – Kim’s Convenience was so good.

I loved the show so it seemed like an easy layup for me to enjoy the stage production it was based on, but wow...

It has a lot of the culture-clash humor of the TV series but also has an edge/depth that is harder to work into a 20 min sitcom format. Swung the audience from busting up to being moved by the moments without a missed beat.

6/6 – This place is fully committed to the aesthetic experience. The food itself is decently priced and pretty good, but the main draw of course is the Saharan night setup. Demand is high, so you’ll want to book this early.

Most menu items are kebab skewers and mezze, so they trend on the lighter side. Appetizers are good, but seems surprisingly nibbly for a place you have to book ahead of schedule. There are some exceptions, like the lamb shank. Saffron rice was excellent. Do take the side trip to the bathroom, which is also committed to the North African look & feel.

6/7 – Good news, a World Cup Friendly lives up to its name.

A few weeks ago, I quickly snatched up the cheapest tickets I could find, expecting to be in the cheap seats that trigger vertigo. I was pretty surprised to see our seat numbers pretty much had us sitting inside the goal.

Observations:

1) No disrespect to Jordan, but the skill gap between a newcomer like them against a mid-to-upper tier club like Colombia is even more visible in person.

2) Colombia has had some sweet jerseys over the years. Got to see a good representation of multiple years, alternates, and variations on the Cafeteros over the years.

3) The San Diego population leaned heavily towards Colombia as one would expect, but the Jordan supporters were pure class.

6/11 - Just dropping this here:

6/12 - Little big things that happened this week.

Getting all these kids through daycare is a huge and very welcome milestone, it’s also wild seeing all these kids transition over to a very different stage of life.

The early years were absolutely crazy with three kids in two years, but they were also so full of goodness.

I’ve lived the past few years with a deep awareness of how much I’m gonna miss this era someday, and I’m thankful I had that awareness.

This theatre is working smarter not harder

6/20 – When John Green could’ve given his protagonists any names and somehow they’re the exact names you gave your twins…

6/22 – I saw Toy Story 5 over the weekend.

It had a lot of good qualities to it. I thought they had a nuanced take on the whole kid-tech-toy thing. But the movie itself generated a lot of exasperation. ~I can’t believe they’re still going with these!~

I think the franchise could flip that exhaustion into a more welcome, “Ah, we were due for another one!” by taking notes from the best…

The Muppets.

  • With 60+ toys, we don’t need every one in every story. Know which ones can serve as anchors, pair the chaos toys with the order toys, and let ‘er rip. Use some of the others to play delightful bit parts.

  • Toy Story is facing the challenge of many of its original voice actors having passed on. Even Tim Allen does not sound the same. You know who else has had to navigate this? The Muppets. You’ll find a way forward.

  • Stop numbering the movies. Give each one a theme. Toy Story 6 sounds exhausting. Toy Story Takes Manhattan? Toy Story Gets Cast Away? Let’s go.

  • Give us an AUTEUR to perform as a human character in each one. A Tim Curry or Michael Caine equivalent for a new generation.

  • Lean into the music. From Randy Newman to Taylor Swift, Toy Story has some iconic use of songs. Give some bars to the toys… especially the ones that aren’t totally verbal.

6/27 – My wife is playing Declaration of Independence signer Joseph Hewes (NC) in a stage production of 1776 this week, so our 11th anniversary photos will look quite odd when put next to the other anniversaries.

Marriage remains ever the adventure!

6/28 – Improv has become such a big part of my life. A silly part of my life, but an important one in a lot of ways. Played one last set with Metal People last night the crew that got me back into it after decades away. Cheering for all your journeys!

7/1 – Pizza Night with Juniper

7/4 – Gonna be real hard to go back to normal swingsets after this

7/7 – Got to chat with my friend Nathan on the Braver New Worlds podcast. We talk storytelling and even tell some stories… imagine that! Listen HERE

7/8 – My friend Nathan created a conversation event in San Diego that gathers a couple times a month. Finally got to make it to one last week to hear my friend Sam speak.

They know how to put on an event. If you’re in San Diego, keep this on your radar.

7/15 – I lived in Argentina for half a year. This was also back in 2011 and so it seems like a very different place than it does now. But there was a lot I loved about the country, and met a lot of forward thinking people and others with eccentric points of view.

I lived a block over from a house that was the Australian embassy, formerly the Iraqi embassy, and formerly-formerly the residence of Albert Einstein. Argentina was a refuge for many who escaped the holocaust AND a hiding spot for many escaping prosecution for their involvement.

Most Porteños had a hardened, somewhat cynical sense of humor that wasn’t always my style. But the nature, food, and creative scene were amazing. Like most countries, Argentina contains multitudes. But of the 60-ish I’ve been to, Argentina is one of the five most complex.

The World Cup is a good opportunity to remember that people aren’t usually best represented by their governments. Like other international events, it raises the question: when you wear the shirt or embrace your nation of origin… is that a co-sign to all that comes with it?

Pretty much every country has skeletons in its closet. Or a whole bunch of trauma. You gotta be honest about that, painfully honest sometimes. But I think trying to detach the good because of the bad feels like conceding to it.

7/19

1. V well played, España. Y’all play as a UNIT.

2. Weird pulling for the world’s designated villain team this time around. Can’t believe this is normal life for Yankees/Lakers/etc. fans

3. Best part of this tournament was having my kids at the perfect age to follow along and get swept up by the larger than life obsession. They’ll be 8 & 10 the next men’s WC, which will be a different kind of fun, but sports are a special magic at this age.

7/25

Pismo with the Boys

7/27

This is one of the simplest and most straightforward writing tips, but somehow always an easy one to overlook when you get caught up in trying to hit word counts and deadlines:

Write what you would want to read.

7/30

A little sad… a little fascinating… hope it was a good life in the ocean, stingray.

8/1 - One of my summer projects was to add some pieces of flair to this corner of the garage. Not because it was neat or anything but it’s odd unfinished state gives it character.

8/11 – Always up for a Filipino Heritage game night.

The Padres absolutely crushed it with these jackets.

8/6 - Almost six years ago this place became a big part of our lives.

Getting our oldest into a daycare at 18 months just as the pandemic was sort of letting up (but not really) was a big step that freed up time and space as we became a family of five.

Today I picked up our twins for the last time from here. Once again, the change will free up time as we have fewer schedules to juggle. Oh, and money this time. Tuition off the books is like, the best raise I’ve ever gotten.

But both moves were a reminder that this ride doesn’t stop. It goes fast if you’re not careful.

 

8/15 – Cousin Camp 2026

8/19 – My favorite language quirk in English has to be the way the UK, and I believe Australia/New Zealand use the word scheme as synonymous with policy.

You don’t have a pension plan. You have a pension SCHEME.

Social services, ran by Jafar. Wait until you hear about his great solar credit caper.

8/22 – Gotta go with American soccer over English football in terms of relevance today… not at all influenced by which side of a 3-0 match I’d rather be on or anything.

8/23 – That time of year/stage of life where the youth used sports gear section is a whole quest.

Jamaica's Massive Drop in Crime

Crime often gets overreported, largely because the fear of crime makes it easy to implement drastic crackdowns or power grabs. Significant drops in crime should also get attention. Congrats Jamaica.

Hawker Chan

Had a chance to eat at the small chicken stand that became the world’s lowest priced Michelin Star. Here’s my Hawker Chan experience

A filmish guide to slicing up your life

It’s a whole genre

I recently that there’s a name for movies like Paterson, How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, or Lady Bird... some of my favorite kinds of movies. These films can be categorized as slice-of-life films.

In short, these are movies that are more focused on the mundane rhythms on life rather than earthshaking events. Character arcs unfold slowly over seasons and there’s a romanticization of the ordinary.

The first few times I heard movie buffs give language to this movie, I realized that many of my all-time favorites fall into this category. Two of my favorite directors of all time, Richard Linklater and Edward Yang have especially mastered this craft.

Here are a few ways to recognize a slice-is-life film:

There are multiple seasons. Sometimes even years. Like I said, arcs unfold slowly. Character development and transformation still happen, but as is often the case in real life, you don’t really see these changes over the course of a week. A year? Much more likely.

Some of the most classic examples of films that incorporate seasons into its storytelling include (500) Days of Summer and Juno, but they are so heavily stylized and perhaps not subtle enough to fit the bill. In Juno’s case, a teen pregnancy is a bit more disruptive than the typical call to adventure in a slice of life film. But other examples would include Another Round, The Straight Story, and aptly enough, the Korean film Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and… Spring.

The ordinary is romanticized. Protagonists are often ordinary working class people working jobs that seem commonplace. I’ll get to why Perfect Days is the perfect example, but I’d also point to Roma as another good representation.

Most of these films carry the subtle belief that ordinary isn’t ever really ordinary. Or that it is; but that’s the point of it all. The things that we easily take for granted are the most valuable.

Comfort and familiarity. There are a good number of stories that present the banality of everyday routine as something to escape from- Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty to name a couple that do it well. The classic Joseph Campbell Hero’s Journey includes a call away from the ordinary and a bit of resistance. But a slice of life film comes from the opposite direction, there’s a comfort and relatability that comes with familiar territory.

A slice of life film moves in the opposite direction. The familiar is typically portrayed positively. There is still a voyage through discomfort and the unfamiliar, but typically it comes through going deeper rather than going elsewhere.

Some Slice of Life Favorites

Slice of Life films have long been familiar in a lot of Asian and Scandinavian films. There’s at least a lot more patience to let a plot unfold slowly. One of the earliest examples is none other than Japan’s Tokyo Story, which features an older couple visiting their older children in Tokyo, in turn giving us a look at their lives. I consider Edward Yang to be one of the very best slice-of-life storytellers, with Yi Yi being his essential offering. We get a good look at a family’s life through rotating perspectives.

India & Iran happen to have some great offerings in this department, with the latter’s Asghar Farhadi making this type of movie his signature style. A Separation and The Salesman both focus on middle-class Tehran-based couples, allowing their relationship to be tested slowly. Two of the better Indian offerings include Dear Zindagi and Piku, both focused on journeys, family relationships, and mental health.

If I were to make a top three, in third I’d have to go with Norway’s The Worst Person in The World for third place, applying slice-of-life storytelling to some beats that might otherwise make for a classic romcom.

In second place belongs Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some, which features a college baseball team in 1980s Texas. It follows the team’s off-field lives throughout an academic year, paying tribute to the freedom and friendships you encounter at that stage of life. I’d also have to give a strong honorable mention to Linklater’s Boyhood, which is one of my favorite movies hands down. It indeed checks most of the boxes for a slice-of-life film. I just happen to get a lot of other things out of it.

Then I’d probably top the charts with a fairly recent movie, Our Perfect Days. The Japanese film follows the life of an older toilet cleaner in Tokyo who takes great joy out of the simplest of routines. We learn more and more about his past along the way, it’s a film that really makes you want to stop and enjoy the everyday world around you more and more.

Live Your Life Like a Slice is Life Film

There are many genres you could try to model your life after, but let’s be real. Most would probably have some horrific results. Trying to model your life after a romantic comedy would not be healthy. Trying to model it after a rock and roll biopic would also be unhealthy, for very different reasons.

But a slice of life film is a bit different. I think approaching your daily life a little bit more like a film in this genre might help you appreciate it all the more.

I had this thought once while watching First Reformed. Not quite a slice of life film, but one that finds beauty in a modest setting. The cinematography of the movie was gorgeous. The actual settings however, weren’t. Rundown church buildings. Rural Michigan in that late stage of winter when the cold has gone on a little too long. And yet, the way the light hit everything brought in some beauty.

I think the banality of life could actually be seen through that lens. When we think about what a cinematographer might actually find stunning about the spaces we occupy everyday, we start to see them differently.

Here are my keys for living like a slice is life film:

Remember the simple things and to make them sacred

As much flack as social media often gets for being a vehicle for people oversharing, I think there are some good things that come from people being trained to see the aesthetic in their real lives.

That instinct you might have when you see the light filter in through the blinds of an old library window? It’s a glimmer of beauty in the ordinary. The more you can hone the “art of noticing” as they say, the more you’ll be in position to delight in the ordinary.

Don’t be afraid to move slower

Slice of life films aren’t devoid of conflict, stakes, or character journeys. They’re all there when you know how to look. But they simply evolve more slowly over time.

Moving through life like that takes trust. It takes the sense that things happen in their right time, even when it doesn’t quite feel like it. It puts to the test the Soren Kierkegaard quote about how life must be moved forwards but can only be understood backwards.

Take on some preemptive nostalgia

One of the things that the slice of life films do exceptionally well is make you appreciate what life looks like at a given moment, with all of its imperfections and minutiae. A story like Everybody Wants Some wil mar you realize that those times of messing around with your friends you take for granted one day might someday be something you deeply miss and long for.

It’s that whole thing about wanting to know they’re the good old days while you’re still in them. A slice of life approach preempts the nostalgia, helping you recognize what’s special right in front of you. Knowing that life is constantly changing is even more reason to savor it all.

Pacific Quiche / Metal People

Pacific Quiche. Metal People.

Being a part of these two improv teams has been a huge source of joy for me over the past two years. Glad I got to end on such a high note with both of them this summer as both teams retire off into the sunset..

Such a gift to have a regular opportunity to show up and do what you enjoy with people you enjoy.

The shows will go on for all of us, but in new forms and teams and so on. Big thanks to all my teammates and everyone who’s made it out to a show.

The Last Speaker of Thiinma Rocks

Your 20s are great for branching out and exploring.

Your 30s are great for building and putting down roots.

Your 90s are great for saving an endangered language through rock and roll.

Leave It All On The Road

oRIGINS OF A rALLYING cRY

I enjoy hearing musicians or former musicians talk about their time on tour. Especially when they were just successful enough to have gone on tour, but not successful enough where it would’ve been easy. I enjoy hearing about the effort it took to find couches to sleep on, the sketchy venues, or the old secondhand van that kept falling apart. These make much more interesting stories than the luxury coaches and hotel accommodations at every stop.

I enjoy these stories because I’ve had a little taste of that life.

My music talent is pretty much nonexistent, so I shouldn’t actually be that familiar with the touring life. Except that I found my way to it by doing something that’s much more within my skillset.

Nonprofit marketing.

I went on tour to promote an organization I really care about and still do.

Technically speaking, this was my first gig out of college. It was an internship that turned into something so much more. I would be touring around the country to talk up the plight of North Koreans, sharing documentaries about the human rights crisis in North Korea and raising funds to help its refugees.

The logline for this adventure seemed like a blast: Take a roadtrip around the country… for North Koreans! It was the right combination of fun, meaningful, and bizarre that I gravitate towards.

That gig also happened to be a lot of work. We had to begin our tour by booking our took. This took a grassroots effort of identifying contacts, making phone calls, sending emails, and arranging events. Some of those days we spent over fourteen hours on outreach, and that was before the tour even began.

Once we hit the road, the work was just as demanding. Now we had to deliver the presentations and meet with people, often while still putting together later legs of the tour. I often said that it was essentially a 24 hour workday. We were always in closed quarters, often making public appearances, and never really off the clock.

We slept wherever we could find housing, often asking the organizers of our events if they knew anyone with a spare room or couch. A couple nights we were comped hotel rooms. Other nights we slept in the van. It was a total wild card.

Food was somewhat similar. I was a 22 year old new graduate at the time, meaning I had very little money. Thankfully my route covered much of the midwest where our hosts would often invite us out to eat, often showing us the quirky food item that was the source of local pride.

Along with the hard work came a rush of unpredictability.

Somewhere amidst the hustle of making this tour happen and remembering to breathe along the way, a mantra started to emerge. My teammates and other groups on tour started to echo a phrase that turned into a rally cry.

Leave it all on the road.

It’s nearly been fifteen years since that life-changing tour and the phrase still speaks volumes to me.

Leave it all on the road.

When you’re essentially living in a van with two other people for several months and going from city to city, you don’t have a lot of room to hide from each other. You need to figure out how to get along. Things will come up to work through and the best thing to do is to deal with it proactively. Be honest and forgiving and leave it all on the road.

When you hit your third month on the road and a lot of the novelty of the experience has worn off, you’ll need to stop and give yourself some important reminders. This experience you’re having, the fact that you get to do this meaningful and unusual thing, is a total gift. You don’t want to miss out on being present for this very transformative chapter of your story. Don’t leave anything undone. Leave it all on the road.

As challenging as this experience can be at times, you have what it takes to meet those challenges head on. Support your team, give it your best, and leave it all on the road.

The phrase took a much more sobering turn two years after I had toured. I had moved on to a new chapter in my life, but other groups had risen up to take their turn on the road. It just so happened that on my 24th birthday, the group that was driving in my old van collided with an oil tanker in Texas. None of them survived.

Even though I never got to meet them, they were in my circle because of the experience we shared.

One of the things I loved from when we were working on the cause, for the North Korean people, was that everyone showed up with such purpose. There was a strong sense that what we were doing mattered. So much so that we would reroute a season of our lives for doing this. That sense of clarity and meaning underscored the notion of leaving it all on the road.

This wasn’t hustle culture for the sake of hustle, or for the accumulation of wealth or accomplishments.

This was living fully.

Life this year has been strange. There are so many challenges I didn’t expect. So many changes and transitions. At the same time, the broader social climate is a big mess, and so many people in my life have endured personal losses and tragedies. When I’m taking the bigger view of things, I know it’s just one chapter of a story with many highs, lows, and plot twists. But there are times when it gets especially hard to see what’s around the next corner and this is one of those times.

All I can say is that this too, is a time to leave it all on the road. 

A time to show up and to live wholeheartedly.

To put in your best effort, even at a time when trying often feels futile.

Sometimes you gotta keep faith that it’s going somewhere.

Leave it all on the road.

AYCE Dim Sum

Just me turning a dim sum run into a heist movie. 🏦🥟💰My stand up debut.