WRITING

It is such a gift that words exist.

To capture emotion. To describe a memory. To envision the future.

Here are mine.

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POETRY

THANK YOU JOHN

I wept when John Prine died. I have never met him, and never will (in this life). I know I am not the only one who had this strong of a reaction to the news of his passing. He mentored countless artists and shaped what folk and Americana is today. He shared an office with Sturgill Simpson, for goodness sake. Why is it that we feel so close to him after listening to his words? 

I think it is because John Prine was a model of rawness and beauty, and he made us feel less alone. He was a mailman who wrote songs about addiction, PTSD, and loneliness on his mail routes. His words were the soundtrack to significant moments in our lives. His honesty made us feel like we knew him. 

He was known to use nonsense phrases in his songs, but with him, it was not meaningless. It was a man grappling to make any sense of a world that makes no sense, especially in this time. He excavated his heart in a way that gave us words to our own emotions and stories. In a time where we all feel alone, John’s line “You don’t have to be alone, just come on home,” brings me more comfort now than ever. What a sorrow to see him go. 

I wrote this piece in December 2019 when reflecting on the best musical story of the past decade. I hope it brings you at least a little peace in this time.

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To ask me “Which song told the best story this decade?” is like asking a puppy which squeaky toy he wants to play with. The answer is hard to find because SO many great options exist. Music is incredibly subjective to each listener’s experience. I could’ve chosen a song from a Kendrick Lamar album or a Beyonce track, or one of Adele’s heart-wrenching ballads that would make anyone tear up, and those all would have been respectable options of excellent storytelling. But I decided to go a different route, one you might have not traveled before. One that represents the decade, and the people who lived in it, in a way you may have missed. I am taking this opportunity to put a spotlight on John Prine’s “Summer’s End” from his newest album The Tree of Forgiveness. This emotive storytelling experience takes a deep dive into what it looks like to seek solace when suffering. Listen and watch the official video for it here. For the lyrics, click here.

In Prine’s music video, a mom dies because of opioid addiction and the consequences that follow her death. The video portrays an old man and a young girl (presumably his granddaughter) living life together and adjusting their routine after the passing of their loved one. This story hits home for Prine, as he lost someone whom he considered family to this addiction. 

He isn’t the only one. An estimated 10.3 million Americans aged 12 and older misused opioids in 2018. And according to the White House website, opioid overdoses accounted for more than 42,000 deaths, more than any previous year on record. This is a huge deal. “Summer’s End” shows the role love plays between a mom and daughter and a grandfather and granddaughter, who are struggling with a very real, very relevant heartache for many people living in this decade. The title represents not only a season of the year ending but a season of life shifting for this family.

The interesting thing is that the first listen-through of this song (without seeing the video) just sounds like a beautifully melancholic love song. An old story that many of us have heard before, about a love that lasts a summertime and then fades. Prine uses great imagery of swimsuits drying, old photos of them together, vacation ends. 

Or maybe you’d think it’s about a family being together for a childhood of memories and then one member moving away. Or perhaps it is a friendship fading as the years go by. These are all narratives that you might have even been a part of at one point in your life. So how, might you ask, could this be one of the best stories of the decade when even the subject matter is subjective?

The answer is that the story represented by the song is one that represents a much larger story (as so many good stories do). It is about loneliness, nostalgia, love, and community. These emotions are felt so clearly not only by Prine’s words but also in the way he plays the guitar. He uses a very, very repetitive plucking pattern, which to me represents the cyclical nature of loneliness and struggle. “Summer’s End” provides a tangible slice of the human experience. That’s an impressive thing to pull off with just a few chords and a simple melody. 

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When writing this, I had no idea what the state of the world would be like in this season of pandemic. This time has brought tremendous hurt to so many people. It has brought loneliness, it has brought doubt, and it has brought sadness. John’s words are truer now than ever. He speaks of patience being the solution to restlessness. Intentional (while now virtual) community is the cure to isolation. And love is the salve to hurt. 

This song is important, it is hauntingly articulate, and it is a story we should all hear. Thank you, John. I hope you are enjoying that vodka and ginger ale with God right now. We will miss you so much.

Telling your story in a new way…

At StoryDriven, I was tasked with rebranding our whole company. I wrote this copy for the website and synthesized it into a PDF so that companies could present our information to high-level decision-makers in their company.

…With dignity

One of my clients at StoryDriven was Veritas Collaborative, a comprehensive healthcare system dedicated to giving all people with eating disorders—of any age and any gender—access to best-practice care and the tools they need for lasting recovery. With them, I had the opportunity to design some of their social media posts, following strict guidelines set to maintain the dignity and respect of the patients and the process.

…with creativity

I wrote these pieces as a creative exercise for myself. I love figuring out ways to weave language in new ways. These pieces are my secret little treasures. And now I want to share them with you.

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The Veil of Mediocrity

Human,

Let’s talk.

Be reminded, Human. That you are finite. That you remain only for a thin slice on a massive timeline. So let’s use this slice of existence to pierce through the veil of mediocrity.

Forbid the mindset of insignificance, of insufficiency.

I want to scream at the top of my lungs to HALT THE REPETITION.

Of the same hollow words. Of the same wheels of life churning to the sounds of our hearts beating.

YOU are more exquisite than any work of art at any museum.

YOU are more unfathomable than any equation.

YOU are more remarkable than any architectural phenomenon.

It’s simply fact. Take a look at your body alone. There are more than 100 BILLION nerves within your structure that make you function daily. What? Yeah, that’s right. You are reading this right now because all of the pathways in your mind working together to allow you to see.

So is this what makes us Human? Our physical body?

Is it the breath in our lungs?

Is it the skin on our bones?

It is the blood pulsing through our veins?

What separates any other live being from humanity?

Our joys?

Our depravities?

Hmm.

Let’s break it down, shall we?

More than 7.5 BILLION lives are simultaneously experienced on this Earth.

Intertwined.

Thoughts ensnare our minds.

We are within and we are without.

Without pain, there is no mercy.

Without friction, there is no triumph.

What a tangled web we all weave.

One in many. One of many. One because of many.

So what are we? Are we here just to be a passerby?

To experience a moment in time with one another and be blown out like a match in the wind?

I think not.

So here is my challenge for you and I, Human:

Let’s notice each other.

Let’s hold the door for one another as we walk into a store.

Let’s run to give someone a hat that fell off their head as they drove past.

Let’s take a moment to look around and realize the thoughts that must swirl around like a washing machine in each other’s minds.

Let’s drive to the side of the road when an ambulance cries through.

Let’s smile as we walk by, or at least look at each other.

Let’s remember that each life is as complex and wonderful and insane and worrisome and intricate as our own.

Let’s just simply notice.

What a gift it is to be human.

To have breath in our lungs.

To have skin on our bones.

To have blood pulsing through our veins.

To have joys. To have depravities.

Live intentionally, Human. Live genuinely, Human.

Be reminded, Human. That you are finite. That you remain only for a thin slice on a massive timeline. So let’s use this slice of existence to pierce through the veil of mediocrity.

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A Common Thread

Dear Weaver,

Take me in your loving hold and shape me as you will. Tell me not to worry. Show me that you will use me in your masterpiece.

Don't string me along. Spin me into what you will. A mechanic's cleaning rag or a king's garb. A child's pajamas or a grandpa's sweater. All I ask is that you use me in an effort of great avail.

Give me purpose, oh Weaver, and I will not fray.

With gratitude,

A Common Thread

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Thank You

Thank you Joy

With your sunny smile

And your knowing gaze

I will hang onto You.

Thank you Pain

With your clenched fists

And your short breaths

I will learn from You.

Thank you Freedom

With your head out of the car window

And your weightless song

I will search for You.

Thank you Struggle

With your push & pull

And your gritty cry

I will utilize You.

Thank you Change

With your thrilling possibilities

And your uncertain paths

I will think kindly of You.

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Notes on a Page

Freedom. Heartache. Understanding.

What is it about music that draws us close or propels us away?

Do we search for our heartbeats in the melodies that we hold dear?

There is something hidden within those finite number of notes that lets us speak in a language beyond the grasp of our hands. Beyond the gaze of our eyes. The intangible connection that strikes a chord in our heart. The overflowing of emotion so pure and so whole that a little piece of our soul can find its resting place.

Beyond notes on a page.

…with strategy

This is a guest article I wrote with the International Labour Organization’s Approach to Inclusive Market Systems (AIMS) team for Refugees and Host Communities. I interviewed Nadja Nutz and wrote with their audience, market development practitioners, in mind.

How Do You Apply a Market Systems Approach in a Country That Is Collapsing?

Applying ILO-UNHCR’s Approach to Inclusive Markets Systems (AIMS) in forced displacement settings can already be a challenge, but when the host country is experiencing one of the world’s worst financial crises in over a century, finding a successful market-based path can feel almost impossible. According to government and independent sources, up to 1.5 million Syrian refugees are currently hosted in Lebanon, equivalent to a quarter of the Lebanese population. With the highest per capita concentration of refugees in the world, Lebanon’s social stability in many municipalities was already fragile with population pressure put on stretched services, infrastructure, and jobs. Now, Lebanon as a country is enduring a humanitarian catastrophe created by a financial meltdown. Under its AIMS Component, the PROSPECTS Lebanon team, working in the horticulture sector, has taken its pre-crisis learnings on the market and adopted a highly-adaptive path forward. While its initial objective of creating new jobs for refugees may now be elusive, the objective is now to safeguard the jobs that are threatened by this crisis.   

Prior to the crisis, ILO under PROSPECTS Lebanon chose agriculture as one of the main sectors of their interventions across the employment, skills, and social protection pillars. Within the agriculture sector, the horticulture sub-sector was selected for work on market systems based on two major findings from market assessments conducted in 2019 and 2020: 1) The legal framework in Lebanon dictates that refugees are allowed to work in only three sectors and agriculture is one of them. Typically, the owners of farms are Lebanese and most of the workers on the farms are Syrians. 2) Farmer productivity in horticulture was found to be low suggesting if investments were made in areas with higher-value inputs or modern greenhouses, it would mean long-term financial gains for farmers. Supporting the growth of horticulture farmer’s businesses would mean more Syrian refugees would have jobs. 

While these two insights remain, the environment for farmer profitability and investment has drastically changed due to the crisis. The financial sector has effectively collapsed and banks have frozen people’s Dollar accounts and stopped lending money. The Lebanese lira has devalued massively, losing nearly 98% of its value against the dollar in everyday transactions (As of May 2022: 27000 lira to 1 US$). For farmers, this means that the low-productivity practices they were using are now no longer sustainable. First, all of the inputs required (fertilizer, pesticides, seeds) are imported and the prices have quadrupled. This combined with declining purchasing power locally, the profitability of the horticulture sector has plummeted. Increasing productivity in the sector has become urgently needed to safeguard jobs. If farmers can’t switch to high productivity practices, they have the potential to lose their farms, leading to widespread job losses, including for Syrian refugees.

Many organizations are trying to fix the situation with a humanitarian approach, distributing seeds and giving out grants to help farmers and other groups to survive. That is a necessary but not sufficient step. ILO under PROSPECTS Lebanon is trying to pair that approach (i.e., passing out vouchers for more direct support) with more long-term solutions. One way PROSPECTS Lebanon is doing this is through the promotion of modern, multi-span greenhouses. These greenhouses have major benefits, like improved ventilation, higher side walls, and nets to protect crops from insects. However, they are more expensive so a strong return on investment has to be proven.  PROSPECTS trialed the greenhouses with 12 farmers in different project regions and collected data for a year comparing yield and revenue using the old and new structures. After the trials ended, it was confirmed that there were large productivity gains - an average of 60% yield increase depending on the microclimate and the expertise level of the farmer. The quality of crops also improved, allowing farmers to get higher prices for their vegetables. Next to these productivity benefits, it was confirmed that multi-span greenhouses substantially improve the working conditions for the mostly Syrian greenhouse workers.

In parallel, PROSPECTS conducted surveys with farmers that showed that while they were aware that multi-span greenhouses existed and that they were more expensive, they were not aware of the immense productivity benefits that have been proven when using them. To reduce this information gap, PROSPECTS is now working with suppliers as well as the Ministry of agriculture to get the information out. They discovered that the information needs to be framed correctly because farmers won’t necessarily trust suppliers and the government telling them what to do. Their current strategy is to channel the information through other farmers. They are creating videos with the farmers who participated in the trials, as well as brochures and materials that can be sent out through Whatsapp groups that the farmers have. 

Communication is not the only thing holding farmers back from investing in modern greenhouses — it is quite an investment. The current financial crisis means that there are no loans that farmers can take out. The legal framework still allows lenders to pay back loans taken out in US$ at the official exchange rate of 1507 lira to 1 US$. This effectively means that even micro-finance institutions are unable to lend hard currency since they will likely lose that money. What is more, informal credit lines from suppliers have also dried up. There used to be a system where suppliers could allow farmers to pay in installments, but since suppliers now also have no credit with banks, they have stopped the practice. Suppliers are still selling these greenhouses, but require that farmers pay cash upfront, which most farmers cannot do. PROSPECTS Lebanon is therefore hoping to negotiate a partnership with one of the few entities still able to lend money, a foreign-registered impact investment fund run by the Lebanese diaspora. The fund is interested in lending to farmers, but high-transaction costs mean there is still a risk. PROSPECTS Lebanon is thus planning to reduce the risk by putting up credit guarantees and, enabling the impact investing fund to enter that market and in a way, temporarily replace banks. PROSPECTS will further encourage investments of farmers in modern greenhouses by subsidizing roughly 30% of the costs for an initial batch of modern greenhouses. 

The deep crisis in Lebanon is indeed a humanitarian issue and humanitarian response is in great need. However, that doesn’t mean that projects shouldn’t also work towards a long-term vision for sustainable change. This is at the heart of the humanitarian-development nexus that addresses immediate needs in crisis settings while still addressing the more structural challenges. For the project team, working in a collapsing economy meant accepting that there are limits to what can be achieved at this point in time. But it also meant persevering and continuously adapting the program strategy to an ever-changing environment in an effort to continue to make an impact.  A sound market assessment, flexibility, and ongoing review of market intelligence were required for the program to constantly be aware of what is happening in the market and adapt to that. Far from being obsolete, the program’s focus on increasing productivity in the sector is now more important than ever to safeguard the livelihoods of both farmers and workers in the sector sustainably. While interventions to enhance farmers’ access to finance and information about high-productivity practices and technology cannot tackle the problems of one of the worst financial crises in a century, they do provide an opportunity to lay the groundwork for long-lasting transformational change in the horticulture sector that will protect livelihoods of both refugees and host communities. 


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