Life in Three Pictures

Have you ever looked at an old photo of yours, only to be transported instantly back in time to that moment?

That’s not how it normally goes for me—there’s no moment of total recall or anything like that, but I do enjoy playing detective on my past lives. That’s what I want to do with you today, if you’ll indulge me.

Lets start with this beauty:

Immediately, I can identify a lot of context. This is clearly at a jiu jitsu tournament, some time when I was competing regularly. I know this was about 20 years ago for several reasons.

First, that is my old friend Klint’s hand, making the ubiquitous shaka symbol. “You rock”, Klint is saying with his hand. Second, my hair is long and my face is full. I was a drinker and an athlete, which might seem like an odd combination, except it’s really not.

I’m wearing a rashguard, the type of close-fitting shirts surfers will wear. Jiu jitsu folks wear them nowadays too. The rashguard was given to me by Sam, the owner of NHB Gear. Sam and other generous sponsors would give me stuff to wear, and occasionally even give me money to compete. It was all very grassroots.

Long hair in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu might strike the astute observer as an odd choice, especially for someone who was so serious about competing. Because of my weird jiu jitsu OCD, I committed to growing my hair until I was promoted to the next belt level, then cutting all my hair completely off with each promotion. That led to some very goofy in-between haircuts, like this one:

This magnificent mullet’s companion is Hallie, whom I met through my current partner, Alley. We (Hallie and I) met in 2010, when she came over and sat on my lap, giving me tacit approval.

The backpack beside the bed indicates travel, and that’s not a surprise: from the early 2000s through about 2012, I drove all over the country, putting 200,000 miles on two cars. I kept my bags packed and ready to go, so I could just throw my laptop in there and head out the door, more or less, because I was on the road almost as much as I was at home.

Hallie came into Alley’s life by way of a rescue organization, and over the years, we got to know a lot of folks who run such organizations. One of these wonderful humans was named Wanda, and she ran Wanda’s Little Rescues.

This is probably where the single greatest photo of me was taken, but I’ll let you be the judge of that:

This picture says an awful lot. The fellow on my left armpit-lap is Harley. He liked me, and I liked him. He would cry whenever I left this room to go use the restroom or whatever.

These other dogs were stewards of Wanda, who operated her rescue like a true boss. I’m glad to have known her, and I can only imagine how many doggie lives she saved over the years with her tireless work. This was her home, and she was a saint.

This is where we adopted Molly back in 2014, so it made sense to make this pilgrimage. I share old pics of Molly on Substack’s Notes from time to time.

These photos traveled from the world of jiu jitsu to the world of dogs, so I feel like it’s only appropriate to share one that combines both worlds just a bit:

This was a photo-shoot for Richmond BJJ, the gym my friend Eric founded in 2002, and which we (Revolution BJJ) own today. Eric and Liz (the previous owners) love dogs enough to let me sneak Molly into these semi-official pics!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little story-in-pictures. Thanks for indulging a little nostalgia and dog-love with me!

Do you have any photos that tell a story, that bring you back to a time and place like magic? And if you don’t mind, let me know if this was too much nostalgia, or if you’d like to hear more!

And, if you want to see more pics of my dogs, this is a pretty good place to start: