The Church of Henry

Maybe he just forgot to take his meds that morning, but when I shared this cartoon with the Kid, it really threw him for a loop.

To cure the resultant anomie of the Kid, I recommend a visit to the Church of Henry. Henry, will of course, kick the Kid's ass, metaphysically. In 1998, I introduced the Kid and Mr. Surly to the spoken words of punk rock pioneer and street philosopher Henry Rollins. Ever since then, when any member of the editorial board of The Idiom slips into an existential crisis du jour, it becomes time to pay a visit to Mr. Rollins neighborhood.
Check it, quotations from the Book of Henry:

Don't do anything by half. If you love someone, love them. If you hate someone, hate them until it hurts.

Go without a coat when it's cold; find out what cold is. Go hungry; keep your existence lean. Wear away the fat, get down to the lean tissue and see what it's all about. The only time you define your character is when you go without. In times of hardship, you find out what you're made of and what you're capable of. If you're never tested, you'll never define your character.

Scar tissue is stronger than regular tissue. Realize the strength, move on.

It'll destroy you if you try to make it mean anything to anyone but yourself.

The best revenge is to survive yourself.

I don't want to know. I don't need it. I don't want the information that millions of people have. I don't want to be fed these boring facts and figures. Then you'll become one of the masses. I'd rather starve my mind a bit and have to search out nutrition in stranger places.

There are so many hammocks to catch you if you fall, so many laws to keep you from experience. All these cities I have been in the last few weeks make me fully understand the cozy, stifling state in which most people pass through life. I don't want to pass through life like a smooth plane ride. All you do is get to breathe and copulate and finally die. I don't want to go with the smooth skin and the calm brow. I hope I end up a blithering idiot cursing the sun - hallucinating, screaming,
giving obscene and inane lectures on street corners and public parks. People will walk by and say, "Look at that drooling idiot. What a basket case." I will turn and say to them "It is you who are the basket case. For every moment you hated your job, cursed your wife and sold yourself to a dream that you didn't even conceive. For the times your soul screamed yes and you said no. For all of that. For your self-torture, I see the glowing eyes of the sun! The air talks to me! I am at all times!" And maybe, the passers by will drop a coin into my cup.

Various, Henry would like a word with you!