Back.
I’m back.
What we’re gonna do right here is go back.
Back into time. To when Not Shallow was a blog.

One. Two. Three. Four.

Where have I been?

I’ll tell you where I’ve been most recently – on a trip to the most ghetto Burlington Coat Factory on the face of planet Earth. I haven’t been that on guard since I lived outside of Detroit. Going in the front door, aka running the gauntlet, I actually thought to myself, “Better be on your game. Stone face. Walk to the coats with purpose.”

And, no, it wasn’t because there were black people there. In fact, it was the scary white folks, with dead eyes and contusions on their faces.

It was the little kid trailing after his dad saying, “Daaaaadddy, am I a retard?”

Oh God, all I wanted was a cheap coat. And I got one, thanks. And so what if I had to try it on in the midst of old Starbucks cups, gum wrappers and a guy who smelled like a skunk wearing an ashtray as a hat?

Something solidified in that Burlington Coat Factory.

What’s normal? I think it’s normal to make vegan soup and go to yoga on Sunday nights. The woman standing outside Burlington Coat Factory (oh, it’s more than just coats, folks, it’s squalor) screaming into her cell phone so loudly that even when she went around the corner of the building and I was in my car, driving, with the radio on, I could still hear her, thinks that kind of conversation is normal.

What do you think is normal? Because it’s a complex world and not shallow at all, once you start looking. Have you stopped looking? I haven’t.

I’m back, I tell you. Because we all live in our  bubbles and start to think that whatever we live is normal and then – shock – Burlington Coat Factory. Or a beautiful beach with a sea turtle laying eggs. There is so much more… Don’t put your head down.

What we’re gonna do right here is go back.