Author: lifeafterdoorkicking
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From Duty to Dad: Navigating Fatherhood After War
I never really knew my dad. If you added up all the time I spent with him, it wouldn’t make six months. The first time I saw him, I was around eight, and I don’t remember doing much with him. The next time was as a preteen, and that round didn’t do me any favors…
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Are We Already Fucking It Up?
Are We Already Fucking It Up?Life is expensive, and seemingly getting more expensive.Very few people seem to be debating that. What there does seem to be a growing debate over what government should do about it.Three of life’s biggest expenses are housing, education, and healthcare. These are three expenses Americans seem incapable of discussing without…
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A Change of Pace
Every Tuesday for more than a year, a post has gone live here. Sometimes personal, sometimes philosophical, and sometimes political. Sometimes I was writing weeks ahead of schedule; other times I was racing the clock at 11 p.m. to make a 12:05 release. Lately, I’ve been thinking about what this blog has been—and what it…
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Trying to Be the Man of the House
Most people who know me know the military stories. They know about Afghanistan and Iraq. They know about deployments, firefights, and the years I spent in the Army. What they usually don’t know is much about the life that came before the uniform. They don’t know the kid from Las Vegas. The teenager who spent…
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Things run so smooth we forget they’re not guaranteed to
I heard recently that we’ve moved to a post-scarcity society—and that it wasn’t even up for debate.Stopping at the gas station in the morning shatters that illusion.If we were actually post-scarcity, there’d be no shortages. Prices wouldn’t exist. Geography wouldn’t matter. Conflicts on the other side of the world wouldn’t touch anything here because you…
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What We Call Progress—And What It Cost
People like to ask what happened to the days when a single job—something like retail—could support a family.The usual answers get thrown around: greed, policy, bad luck.But that misses the bigger picture.Some of the things we call progress came with unintended consequences.And whether we want to admit it or not, we’re living in them now.…
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Why I Chose Stoicism Over Epicureanism
Philosophy isn’t some wasted elective from high school, or a lot of debt from a college with no method of recompense — it’s a tool for life. When understood and applied, it can help you lead a good life, but first you have to define what a “good life” actually means. I’ve dabbled in philosophy.…
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