About

My name is Mason, and I grew up in a town of 12,000 people. I thought this was small. Turns out I was wrong.

Let me start over. My name is Mason, and I grew up in a smallish town. It’s not large, by any means, but it’s not Monowi, Nebraska. I thought that people who grew up like me would never really grow out of a small town, and for good reason! There’s a seductive pull about a close-knit community. The lower the number of people, the stranger the dimensions of a town can get. People come to expect things from each other, and they come to a sort of sixth sense awareness of what their place is.

I like my hometown, but that’s not where I live right now. When I go back to visit, I am struck by the small dimensions of the town’s borders that are paradoxical to the deep inner lives of its residents. Turns out that people, no matter how large or how small they seem to be, are wells of knowledge, influence and power. Everyone has an effect on the world. If only a small one.

In my quest to appreciate the little spaces of life in a world that is trying to tear me away, I came to realize that small and large are not opposites; they are complements. And there’s a lot to learn about the tiny parts of life.

Stories to tell; investigations to be had. It’s a mysterious world we live in, and I want to find out about it.