Before this website, there were the comments. — Joe English

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Joe English · Durham, North Carolina

Before this website, there were the comments.

If you want to know how I write, start with things I already put into the world. Some are posts. Much of it happens in the comments: replies, encouragement, objections, and an occasional sharp elbow when I think a conversation has lost its way.

Four places to start

Freedom from Liberty NC among the Monks — walking monks, breath, determination, and a crowd sharing a pause.

A Patriot Among Us — a bridge, a stranger, and an invitation that took a human form.

My Take on Gratitude — holidays, a difficult history with them, an invitation, and a return to gratitude.

Yes to Jimmy Kimmel, now what about Karen Attiah — my perspective on journalism, whose voices get heard, and whose loss receives attention.

The comments are part of it

I have described sometimes getting up early to join Robert Hubbell's comment section. It can be a game, a conversation, and a way to reach people who are already there. It is not all outrage. The trail contains gratitude, jokes, spiritual language, practical suggestions, and disagreement.

An April 25, 2026 discussion at Today's Edition — appreciation and a playful detour into longing and the Universe.

An August 5, 2025 discussion at Today's Edition — my account of a community conversation and the connection I felt there.

An August 2025 discussion at Chop Wood, Carry Water — a sharp disagreement alongside an insistence on recognizing constructive work.

A July 17, 2025 discussion at Popular Information — asking what comes after frustration, then describing my own planned participation.

These are starting points, not an exhaustive archive. They link to the surrounding discussions, where other people speak for themselves.

More than one register

I swear more in person than in much of my published writing. A website that puts an expletive in every sentence would miss me almost as thoroughly as one that irons the life out of every paragraph. I can be angry. I can be funny. I can also be grateful for rain and an invitation to dinner.

I would like the whole person to have room here.

October 27, 2026. Edited and developed with AI assistance under Joe's direction. Personal statements describe Joe's account and beliefs; humorous passages are creative writing.

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