John and Lynn finish out 2023 meditating on the cost of money. What people value figures into our sense of money, as does what we consider currency in the culture around us. Is money for some a signifier of power or a hedge against immortality? Or, do many desire that elusive “just enough” for a comfortable life? Our selections deal with wealth in our lives from the natural world to the risks of investing to the joys and discomforts of donating to good causes. We wish you a happy new year and hope that whatever riches you value most will visit you in 2024. In the meantime, enjoy some songs, stories, poems and patter as you tune into your Unruly self!

As winter approaches, The Unrulies retreat into considering relaxation, meditation, and the quieter side of just being. Dreams unspool interspersed with memories, ancestral images seep into our waking moments as we ponder nature, love, and forgiveness. What are the songs that calm us and take us deeper into thought and feeling? How do we keep our equilibrium in a fractured world? Kick back, listen, let your mind roam.

The Unruly Duo creep into the basement to shed light on the murky world where monsters lurk. Does anything we don’t understand or want to face get dumped into the monster bin? Creepy crawlies, voracious reptiles, and pod people get all the attention, but what about the monsters living among us? As the world lurches off its axis, the human mind digs deep into the basement of fear. With a nod to the classic film scaries of the '30s and '40s (Bela Lugosi anyone?), John and Lynn take a tour of the layered lairs of monsters. Lock your doors…

The Unrulies feel their way through the twists and turns of the near miss. Similar to the close call, or is it? You might say life is a sequence of near misses, as we dodge one outcome and choose another. Friends and partners often chortle about the near miss that brought them together, or kept them together. Was it fate? An alarm that didn’t go off? A wrong turn? But then there are the moments we’d like to forget, the consequences seem too scary or too risky or...we shudder to think! The near miss leaves us celebrating our lives and maybe a little wistful. Tragedy can lurk in the corners. Take a deep breath. We can only go forward!

Lynn and John jump into the lives we lead in terms of risk and change. If we “ain’t leaping” as John’s song goes, are we dead? Sometimes we have no choice but to take that leap—life throws us a fast one, we have to move or quit or begin again. Our songs and poems and stories delve into different kinds of leaps with different results. Is a leap the same as a jump? One thing is constant: don’t fly too close to the sun. On the other hand, be sure to mix it up: stagnation breeds nothing but negativity or cynicism or the dreaded boredom. We wish you dazzling leaps and hope your net will always appear!

Hauntings are personal. The Unruly Ones contemplate those visceral never-forget-it-yikes-and-shudder moments. Relationships can haunt and so can actions in the past, a stirring story, dread lurking in the corners of a house, a cultural moment of loss and tragedy. What is a haunting made of? How do we encounter it? Can ghosts be controlled or removed or do they have a mind of their own? Can forgiveness tame the haunted soul? We aim to cast some sunlight on the shadows.

Our friends accompany us on life’s journey. John and Lynn plunge into the role of friends, human and animal, in our lives. Occasionally friends accompany us during the Unruly times of life, at others save us from ourselves. Each friendship is unique. One thing is certain: we wouldn’t be who we are without our friends. A toast to friendship!

We live in an era of cacophony: clamoring ‘opinions’ on social media, trolls upstaging sincere moments, outrage at the ready. We could almost call it the Age of Offensiveness. Someone is upset somewhere by every action, every verbal exchange. The Unruly duo examine speech and action and art as they navigate the lines between acceptable or offensive. Context, as always, sets the stage. We expect our comedians to be offensive. But our religious and political leaders? Or our bosses in work situations? No offense but…offensiveness is a slippery slope.

“Strange” can describe a different view of an everyday occurrence or a person we know well or have never met. Perspective is all. The Unruly Musers pluck out a few moments that capture aspects of the strange to share with you and hope you’ll add your own as you listen. One thing we agree upon: life would be poorer without strange encounters leavening the quotidian.

The Unruly Duo jumps down the rabbit hole in pursuit of magic. Humans crave magical moments in their lives but what is magical to one person might be bizarre to another. Magic is unpredictable and often unplanned: the magical sunset, the magical moment, the magical connection. What are some of the ways we stay open to the unexpected and timeless moments that transform ordinary living to the sublime?