The Urban Hermit Blogs

• The Urban Hermit and Clintonville’s Unmentionables February 19, 2012

  An Urban Hermit can’t afford to be squeamish. I mean, if I’m a journalist of LIFE, you know, really diggin’ into the nitty gritty, the creaks and cracks and crevasses of this thing called The Human Experience, then that means I have to see it all...

• Kenny Rogers on a Rooster November 15, 2011

  Kenny Rogers on a Rooster. That's what my eyes are drawn back to, time and time again. That and Kenny Rogers in a blue leisure suit, wide lapels and a pink dress shirt, frozen in place, microphone at his mouth while a framed portrait of a wide-eyed cat...

• A Picture of Strength November 13, 2011

  I always thought that my strength came from having a solid understanding of the big picture. To me, this meant knowing, in intimate detail, all the little pieces that make up the larger framework of my life. The big picture is made up of many small elements, and if we can know and examine each one of these elements, then we can understand how they fit into the whole. In knowing this, we can see how things connect—and here is the leap: If we can understand how things connect, then we can anticipate how they will connect in the future. This was my concept of strength, this understanding. This ability to make intuitive leaps.

• It’s 3 a.m. Do you know where your squidbillies are? September 27, 2011

  I live in ghetto-light. I don’t know how it happened. I had been living in a fine, upstanding, respectable neighborhood. The sort filled with young professionals. The sort where every woman walking down the street was either pregnant or pushing a bab...

• No more peas, please September 26, 2011

  I was nearly knocked over by a noxious scent the moment I walked into the room. It smelled like chemical powder had been applied liberally to every surface. The couch, the carpet, the walls . . . but I have a feeling it was actually on someone’s skin...

• Comfort Zero September 25, 2011

  The Highly Sensitive Person (or HSP), a term developed by Elaine N. Aron, Ph.D. (author of The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You), is perhaps a designation that is meant to make those of us with heightened sensitiviti...