Writing is a hustle. Not everyone gatekeeps. Walking onto the Ted stage, confident as the sun, smiling. Get thin. Get rich. Get a trophy wife. Trophy kids. Trophy house. Trophy car. Trophy pool. Trophy food (take pictures). Trophy job. Trophy office. Could someone please write my Ted Talk. Hustle Ted. America is just another hustle. You strut and fret and punch much harder than the good people in the audience who all have guns. You think I am making it up. Walk out onto that stage and ask the audience who is armed. Someone will take out their gun and wave it around. Someone who likes to be noticed. Publishing is a hustle. They only want people who can go out and hustle their own books. Selling property is a hustle. Selling the hustle to kids that vaping makes you cool is an insidious hustle. Kids are suspicious. Good for them. Hustles come and hustles go. Start ups are all hustle. Playing basketball where some coach is screaming in your face to hustle is a hustle. The SAT is a hustle. Reading Tom Pynchon is a hustle. Running for high office is a hustle. Free drugs for everyone. Cops are all hustle. Vegas will set you free. Vegas is a hustle. Raising children is a hustle and you get to see your parents smile. Isn’t that the reason you hustle in the first place. I do not trust anyone who hustles including myself. You cannot out hustle a hustler. You can, however, put your lips to a hustler’s ear. “I know who you are.” The hustler will run. Chase him. Why are you here.