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Hello! In an unforeseen turn of events, I’m writing you tonight from this remarkable old house in Saint Helena, CA — a small town in the legendary grape-growing valley known as “Napa.” Passed through a few generations, my buddy’s family has put great tender love and care into the place and rents it out nightly. With a rare handful of unbooked summer nights, they so kindly let us hole up in the place and work remotely on our real estate photography business this week. We made the drive from Phoenix on Saturday, cruised straight out to LA and hooked a right on up Interstate 5. It’s been a sweet break from the Phoenix summer heat. While the sky is hazy with the smoke of who knows how many California wildfires, the air in the valley still reeks with the goodness of abundant green life. Among remote work, writing, runs around town, and breaking bread some fascinating valley winos, I keep coming back to that cool green air and breathing it in deep. The trip has been a microcosm of the summer: a fast-paced, overlapping and churing, kaleidoscopic mix of business and writing and captivating experience. Everything I might ask for, a tad faster than I can handle it. Too busy and beautiful, hence the extra need to let go and return the awareness to the breath. There are many things I might tell you about: thoughts and feels about flying airplanes, a dozen deeper understandings gleaned from Ernest Becker’s veil-lifting book The Denial of Death, real estate photography business developments, my growing love for stretching and yoga, how I plan to visit one of my greatest author-heroes in Nevada City this Friday, the small group of friends I’ve started writing letters from imagined futures with, or a dozen other things my awareness has tangoed with of late, but the rapid river of reality is moving faster than the stream of consciousness is able to flow through pen and keyboard tonight. Rather, what this letter aims to share is an opportunity to take our relationship up a few notches from late night penpals to real life amigos. Five days and four nights, from November 4th to 8th, I pulled the trigger on renting an Airbnb for a dozen-person WONDER WANDER 2021 in the red rocks of southern Utah! Ever fascinated with these twenty-first century experiments in communal wondering and wandering, the twist this time around is that everyone is to facilitate some sort of experience for the whole of the group — a sort of small, experiential treasure swap — if you will. Southern Utah is one of my favorite places on earth, with Angel’s Landing and the Narrows of Zion National Park, Buckskin Gulch (my favorite southwestern slot canyon), and an infinite number of other surreal red rock formations to wander about nearby, I’d love to share the encounter with you. Three hundred bongo bucks will get you a bed, food and drink, and an eclectic friend group with which to experience and share for five fantastic days of desert living. If you’re interested, here’s a link with all the info and a short application. Lastly, I began this interweb-based writing project in September of 2015 and tonight we are crossing into its sixth year! Wow. I’m humbled by all the goodness and connection and meaning writing words on the world-wide-web has brought to my life. I also find myself wondering where these past two years went? I have been swimmingly busy with covid-foiled plans and new ones and haven’t been as consistent with the act of article writing these past two years, but know that you are participating in my favorite endeavor of life to date and that I appreciate your participation more than you know. Quietly and slowly, big things are in the works and there are many more chapters to come. But tonight, the most important thing I have to offer is two welling words: thank you. Forever and always: With love & stoke, Ethan P.S. I got real excited about a particular passage about awe in Ernest Becker’s The Denial of Death last week and cranked out an article about it. Dig it (below) if you have a moment! If it hits you like it hit me, its implications are awesome and ripple throughout all reality.
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