But Do You Really Want a Simpler Life?

Tony Russo
3 min readJul 4, 2017

One cool thing about my job is I can show up to interview people with sand and salt on my legs and no one notices or cares. I’ve got to play that up more. I had to get to the beach for an interview this morning. I figured the earlier I was in, the earlier I would get out.

I hummed the Mission: Impossible theme as I drove, fantasizing about spending as little time on the beach on the Fourth of July as possible.

I have a weird relationship with Ocean City, Maryland because there’s a disconnect between its potential and its reality. Sometimes it is really hard to take a good look at my fellow Americans, unvarnished and on vacation. Other times I take pleasure in their absolute joy.

I think their attitude has something to do with it. People there exude an aura that makes the world better or worse. People everywhere do, but I just tend to notice it there more often, I guess. It’s part of my manic-depressive relationship with the Eastern Shore.

Driving toward Ocean City this particular morning, I was thinking how beautiful the back roads of…

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Tony Russo

Pencil-sharpening enthusiast, journalist, author of “Dragged Into the Light” https://amzn.to/3bLQ0Wi