Using the Lemons we're given.

Deconstruction, deconversion, and a how we all arrive from a place of need and not because we have our stuff figured out.

It just began to shake.

As I was driving down the narrow streets of my neighborhood in Joplin, Missouri, about 14 years ago, my beaten up, deep red Ford Explorer started to convulse violently at the same time it quit shifting between gears. Just 3 months earlier I had purchased this car with the last of my money in my bank account: I paid $400 and traded a banjo in order to have wheels to get to and from work.

Luckily I was within walking distance from a friend’s house who was (and is still) a savant with mechanical things. I texted Justin to see if he would walk over and check it out. When he came up, I met him and tried to explain what I had just experienced. Like anyone else who is allergic to mechanical systems, I tried to imitate the sounds and shakes because I had no idea what could have happened.

Justin took all of thirty seconds under the hood to diagnose the vehicle, with both the clarity and empathy you might expect from a really great doctor. “It’s the transmission - it’s tota…