BOTH/AND WITH CRAIG SPILKER
Writing.
The Gray Bow is my framework for holding opposing ideas as simultaneously true at full intensity—100/100, not 50/50. These essays explore paradox, competing truths, and what happens when we make room for both.
Subscribe on Substack100/100 Two truths. Full intensity.
Essays
NEWEST FIRSTWhen Both Sides Are Right
An upcoming essay on the Gray Bow: holding competing truths at full intensity.
ESSAY COMING SOONWhen Centrism Gets Lazy
The difference between staying out of a fight, avoiding a position, and holding both sides while making a decision.
The sun sets so it can rise again
A prom gathering, conversations about mortality, and learning to hold grief alongside the joy of living.
0 and 100%
A stand-up comedy memory becomes a question about different perspectives, competing truths, and conflict.
The Paradox of the Post Button
Free speech, teenage daughters, and the tension between having a voice and choosing when to use it.
A Big Beautiful Gray Bow: The last of the Opening Series on Both/And
Opening series 5 of 5: using the decision about parenthood to put the Both/And approach into practice.
MAYA: The Shape of Progression
Opening series 4 of 5: Raymond Loewy’s MAYA principle as a way to turn uncertainty into action.
The Opening Series: Paradox and the implications, Or How I learned to love the both/and
Opening series 3 of 5: Zeno, the millet seed paradox, and the questions hidden inside either/or thinking.
The Opening Series: What is a word that describes two things that are true but appear to contradict?
Opening series 2 of 5: naming paradox and learning to stay curious when two truths seem to contradict.
What exactly is "both/and"?
Opening series 1 of 5: the birth of a daughter, conflicting emotions, and the idea behind Both/And.