Hey, it's Major. The team is taking some time to slow down as we ramp up for back to school,

whether we're students, teachers, parents, or just, you know know students of life.

In the meantime we're featuring some favorite episodes from this season so far.

We'll be back with new episodes Monday, September 16th.

I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown. I am far away from my adolescent days of singing along to R&B songs and wishing to be in love,

investigating my past with objective distance and time,

both being required of serious self-examination.

I now conclude, I entangled myself in relationships in which my emotions exceeded my capacity to truly love in the most exalted imminence of that word.

What I mean by this is that I was, to state it simply,

in love with being in love,

which partially accounts to being a poet,

though pursued with great seriousness, spontaneous dates,

gourmet mills, small gifts, quickly dashed off poems, music playlists, were almost never about my partner, but more about my ability to fill.

By the way, I did not learn this in therapy.

I wish I had.

What a hard lesson to arrive at in my fourth decade on earth.

If you'll permit me a comparison.

I am a fan of brunch, golden pastries, French press coffee, Parsley Grimilata, and Mushroom Omelets,

fluted glasses of mamoses.

But I have learned that I am an even bigger fan of meeting up with friends on weekends.

The eggs never match the excellence of the company who ultimately satiate my appetite.

Brunch is merely the means by which I experience

...