Sunday Reflections: Weddings, Connecting with Old Friends and a Cupdate!

On Sundays I reflect. 

I didn’t drink alcohol this week. Tuesday will be eighteen months since I quit. I’ve had about three drinks since then, which is a major contrast to my life prior. I’m often asked if I’m part of a twelve step program such as AA and the answer is no. Sometimes I consider having a drink these days, but the thought never lingers long.

Yesterday I attended the wedding of two close friends on a ranch in Southwestern Colorado. There were admittedly a handful of times during the occasion that I considered grabbing a drink at the bar to placate my social awkwardness. The ceremony was wonderful, and the location was astonishing. Weddings are interesting occasions that often include bumping into people from our past. I think I’m always sort of awkward with other human beings, but wearing a suit and tie instead of sweat pants definitely doesn’t help me with that.

Friday, I got to hang out with another college friend who was visiting Denver from LA. Josh Jenkins and I had a photo shoot around the city with his friend Rene. You’ll see the images we created soon, and one picture went up yesterday for Shot Glass Saturday. I want to tell you more about our ongoing dialogue, behind the scenes.

Josh is bi-racial and identifies as queer. He/His are Josh’s pronouns. He grew up in Indiana to a single mother in low income housing. Despite my upbringing being much different, I think since we met in college we’ve related to each other over not fitting in. Josh is unapologetically Josh, and I am unapologetically Ben. I’ve always admired and respected him for this, amidst a culture that pushes conformity.

As I’ve been educating myself on my own position of white privilege, Josh has been an ally to me. He’s shared his experience with me, and listened to mine. He’s had difficult conversations with me that we both view as essential dialogue in order to bring change into a system which we both oppose. In addition to his management job (congratulations on the recent promotion!) he also runs a Diversity and Inclusion initiative at the company. He has made himself available to me, as I continue to attempt to make my brand inclusive and intersectional with his willingness to guide me and provide ongoing feedback that I highly value.

Josh has a publication for the queer community called The Set Standard, which he hopes to commit more energy to moving forward. To learn more about The Set Standard, click here.

After a bit of a hiatus from creating art, Stephan is working on an affordable line of solo mugs, and a water bottle. I scooped his only solo mug of the year at Michigan Glass Project recently. It’s fully worked and listed here. I asked if he could make a release of the hollow handle mugs with color accents and some clear. That release is almost complete. 

When I started writing these Sunday reflections, I would type them in a note on my phone which I still do. I would share screenshots in my Instagram story, and paste the text to my Facebook wall. Now that I have help from J. Cost and my brother, I’ve been able to share it here on the website with you. I don’t think I ever imagined that I would be writing about a year and a half abstinent from alcohol. For me, my self growth and exploration embodies much more than this choice. I’ve changed more in the last two years that I can ever recall. It’s been challenging. It’s been scary. My current reality is not what it once was. Despite all of this, I think my life is getting better every day. One day at a time. 

Thanks for tuning in,
BB