Monthly Recap :: September 2025

Peace Everyone,

I hope this finds you well. As usual, I’m sharing a few reflections on where my mind’s been, what I’ve been making, and what questions have guided my work in the past month.

1. What I’ve Been Thinking About

In September, I found myself thinking quite a bit about what it means to be interested in “changing the world” anymore. It’s like the more I seem to learn—the more my heart splits in two.

Of course, this has a lot to do with the “non-profit industrial complex” and how “doing the right thing” is sometimes financially dependent on the very thing causing the problem. To put it simply, any systems thinker knows that if you ask enough questions, you eventually reach the answer “because capitalism”.

Yet, at the same time, I can’t ignore how many things that bring me joy are immensely wasteful, unnecessary, and hyper-capitalist. Thankfully, Alain Locke reminded me it’s okay to find joy through culture. Still, what am I to do with all this energy? Am I supposed to just bathe in my own self-righteousness? Focus on getting so rich that I can get “off the grid”? Or go along pretending not to know the truth?

I guess, this month, I’m writing from a place of “stolen joy”. I’m writing from a place where my dreams have become logistics, and that saddens me on days like these. Maybe that’s why I took so long to get this recap newsletter out. Maybe I’m exhausted from pretending I agreed to the terms and conditions of this world.

Frankly, it’s frustrating to be world class at things that are highly valued in this life, yet realizing yourself to be a novice at things highly valued in the next. Many of my friends are becoming parents, for example, and it’s a beautiful thing to witness. Still, somehow I still feel unprepared to offer any notable wisdom should I have a child of my own. Mostly, at age 32, I feel my belly full of mistakes and accomplishment—somewhere between the grass is greener and wanting new grass every day. Now, where’s the wisdom in that?

In the end, I pray that God heals the broken hearts of this world. I pray not that sounder minds prevail, but that our minds don’t forget our hearts. This is what’s been on my mind for real.

2. Updates from My Art Practice

If you read the section above, then you can imagine how important art is for me. I carry these thoughts with me like a Goyard trunk—too big to fit in the over head, but too gaudy to avoid attention.

Yet, in the face of this ambivalence, I’ve found my solace in scripture and fiction—a precarious pair for sure—but I like it. Someone said, “if you feel out of place in this world, then it’s a good sign for you to start creating your own.”

Now, while this doesn’t exactly match with my theology, it does remind me that art is much more than an investment opportunity for the well paid. For me, art represents all of humanity reaching for the infinite. It’s proof that we can know things that we don’t remember learning.


3. Ongoing Work in My Professional Practice

Last month, I spoke about seeing architecture as a civic offering. The good news is that, all things considered, my professional practice is going very well. Many of you have been well aware of the work I’ve been leading in the food systems space. And, as time continues, I’m finding the fruits of my labor beginning to resonate throughout Chicagoland, Atlanta, and beyond.

I’m very grateful to have been in partnership on this work with The Conservation Fund, The Emory Turner Environmental Law Clinic, SupplyChange, and many more. To put it simply, we’ve been working on a playbook for place-based food investment across multiple metro areas in the USA. Earlier this year, it became blatantly clear, the need for a replicable method to see the level of fragility or resilience in these (and other) food sheds. While the project will formally wrap up in mid-December, the work will obviously live on in many other ways. And, I look forward to sharing the journey as it continues on.


4. Best Things I Saw in September

These are a few of the talks, books, and works that opened something in me this month:

🎥 Musiq Soulchild - Love — Watch here

🎥 Neymar Dribbling — Watch here

🎥 ATV Offroad Fury 2 Gameplay — Watch here

📚 M. Kevin Hayden - An Old Soul: A Novel

5) Priorities In My Holistic Practice Right Now

• Strategic advising for mission-first organizations exploring urban development, sustainable business, and uncertain futures

• Projects that treat art as civic or ecological infrastructure

• Collaborations at the intersection of land, design, and long-term investment

Thanks, as always, for following along. If your own work is circling similar questions—or if you’re wrestling with slowness, systems, or scale—I’d love to be in conversation.

Blessings,

JCM