Without One, there isn't The Other

Note: Augusta’s introduction to this recording doesn’t benefit from as clear audio as the rest of the conversation because I can only afford two lapel microphones … for now

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My wife

Augusta Sagnelli

introduced me to Micah in New Orleans a few years ago. They’ve known each other for a decade and Micah has long been a champion of both Augusta’s and my work. He is a talented barber, a staple in the New Orleans community, and also happens to be one of the kindest, wisest, and most in touch humans I’ve ever met.

Without going into the specific details of Micah’s personal life, suffice to say he’s been through multiple life experiences that few of us can fathom surviving, let alone handling with such wisdom, grace, and humanity.

The first time I met Micah, I felt like I was meeting a sage, a wise person, a deeply empathetic and spiritual individual who hasn’t just lived more lives than most, but is—importantly—able to look back at those lives from the next pleateau.

Last night, Micah and I sat down for a conversation in central New Orleans to talk about The Requisitions in a photography studio with high ceilings, white walls, and Robert Johnson crooning in the background. Before our guests arrived (big shout out to all who came and especially thanks to those who bought the book), we discussed this idea of reaching various “higher planes,” and how there’s an inevitable estrangement from certain unexamined routines, friendships, and patterns in our lives after surviving a serious sickness, injury, substance abuse … or simply when we actually listen to Robert Johnson for the first time, or read Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning or Jill Bolte-Taylor’s My Stroke of Insight.

I like the idea that our lives, just like novels, are divided into different chapters and plateaux. Once we’ve read chapter twenty or hiked to the next peak, we can’t very well go back to the mindset we had at the beginning of the adventure.

Evolution is real, and the way Micah speaks, using such measured, contemplative language, reminds me of this truth—of understanding where we come from but, perhaps more importantly, of understanding when remaining in certain planes of existence no longer serves our spirit.

It reminds me of a quote by the 19th century English philosopher John Stuart Mill:

“… a highly endowed being will always feel that any happiness which he can look for, as the world is constituted, is imperfect. But he can learn to bear its imperfections, if they are at all bearable; and they will not make him envy the being who is indeed unconscious of the imperfections, but only because he feels not at all the good which those imperfections qualify.”

As Augusta mentions at the very beginning of our discussion, Micah “is not your average consumer of media. He’s careful with what he consumes and is very thoughtful with how he processes it after, so I thought he’d be the absolute perfect person to facilitate this conversation.”

It was an honor to be in conversation with Micah and to meet old and new faces alike. Big thanks to all who came out, especially

Augusta Sagnelli

, the coolest wife I know and a primary reason The Requisitions is what it is; the badass painter Mary Scinto, who asked a great question at MINUTE 36:00¹, and the author Chin-Sun Lee, who I had the pleasure of meeting last night.²

Happy Halloween folks. I’m going to an epic New Orleans party where the theme is revenge. For my costume, I’ve chosen to embody Rufio, the Leader of the Lost Boys in Hook.

Samuél

1. Mary’s question may sound garbled or quiet in the recording. She asks, “How did you get into the headspaces of some of the characters? Because some parts are aggressive and tragic, and I was curious about your process in terms of writing a book, where you got this insight to be writing from a place that feels so authentic it can be jarring? There were some moments in the book where I felt, “this is a lot right now.”

2. At MINUTE 43:07, Chin-Sun asks a question that might sound quiet in the recording. After I admitted that the original draft of The Requisitions was 140,000 words (the final draft was just over 58,000), Chin-Sun asks, “Over eight years, how many years did you spend drafting versus pairing it down?”