Peter Vogt, Author at For Pete's Sake

About Peter Vogt

I’m a writer. An essayist, to be more exact. I tell stories here—true stories, from my own life, in hopes they will make a positive difference in yours.

I share laughs and tears, insights and observations, frustrations and realizations, relying all the while on the storytelling wisdom of Julia Cameron, author of The Right to Write.

It is a great paradox that the more personal, focused, and specific your writing becomes, the more universally it communicates.

Entries by Peter Vogt

What Will People Think? That’s What I Need to Stop Thinking – for My Sake and Theirs

November 6, 2015/1 Comment/in Uncategorized /by Peter Vogt

I have gone through most of my life saying, to myself and others, that I don’t really care what people think of me or what I do or what I say or what I believe. That I don’t worry about it. Turns out it’s a load of crap. My own thinking and my own actions […]

Peter Vogt

I’m a writer. An essayist, to be more exact. I tell stories here—true stories, from my own life, in hopes they will make a positive difference in yours.

I share laughs and tears, insights and observations, frustrations and realizations, relying all the while on the storytelling wisdom of Julia Cameron, author of The Right to Write.

It is a great paradox that the more personal, focused, and specific your writing becomes, the more universally it communicates.

Grief: Expressing It Beats Repressing It

October 30, 2015/2 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Peter Vogt

Each weekday morning, my wife Adrianne and I get up at 5:45 and go our separate ways. Briefly. Adrianne’s typical path takes her to the shower first, then to the dim light of the kitchen and a quiet breakfast-and-a-book all alone — which is by design as she prepares to teach wiggly first-graders all day […]

Peter Vogt

I’m a writer. An essayist, to be more exact. I tell stories here—true stories, from my own life, in hopes they will make a positive difference in yours.

I share laughs and tears, insights and observations, frustrations and realizations, relying all the while on the storytelling wisdom of Julia Cameron, author of The Right to Write.

It is a great paradox that the more personal, focused, and specific your writing becomes, the more universally it communicates.

Saving Makes Sense When You’ve Lived True Lack

October 23, 2015/2 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Peter Vogt

Dear Dad, I’m covered in dust and memories right now. I’ve been cleaning out your garage – your workshop, your respite care center, your old thinking-and-a-cigarette retreat back in your two-packs-a-day days. Your home away from the house and its insanity – us kids being, well, kids. Dad, we always figured you had a ton […]

Peter Vogt

I’m a writer. An essayist, to be more exact. I tell stories here—true stories, from my own life, in hopes they will make a positive difference in yours.

I share laughs and tears, insights and observations, frustrations and realizations, relying all the while on the storytelling wisdom of Julia Cameron, author of The Right to Write.

It is a great paradox that the more personal, focused, and specific your writing becomes, the more universally it communicates.

We Control Only So Much — We Have to Wing the Rest

May 27, 2015/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Peter Vogt

There were all sorts of ways the kids could die, be it at the hands of an unseen power line or the paws of an unfed feline. We were at the Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge near my hometown of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. I was with my son Theo’s fourth-grade class, and we were discovering on […]

Peter Vogt

I’m a writer. An essayist, to be more exact. I tell stories here—true stories, from my own life, in hopes they will make a positive difference in yours.

I share laughs and tears, insights and observations, frustrations and realizations, relying all the while on the storytelling wisdom of Julia Cameron, author of The Right to Write.

It is a great paradox that the more personal, focused, and specific your writing becomes, the more universally it communicates.

Trust for the Best

May 19, 2015/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Peter Vogt

Which kid should I hurt today? a) Theo. b) Isaac. c) Both a and b. I was wrestling with injustice the other morning, and losing, as I tried to figure out how the hell I could attend two different track meets for two different kids in two different cities. At the same time. My 9-year-old […]

Peter Vogt

I’m a writer. An essayist, to be more exact. I tell stories here—true stories, from my own life, in hopes they will make a positive difference in yours.

I share laughs and tears, insights and observations, frustrations and realizations, relying all the while on the storytelling wisdom of Julia Cameron, author of The Right to Write.

It is a great paradox that the more personal, focused, and specific your writing becomes, the more universally it communicates.

Overdo Your Follow-Through — for Tentative Is Far Riskier Than Confident

December 11, 2014/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Peter Vogt

When I’m shooting free throws on the basketball court, I can tell instantly — the moment the ball leaves my sweaty 47-year-old fingertips — whether I’m about to experience a make or a miss, success or failure, imaginary cheers or imaginary jeers. It’s all in the follow-through. If I’ve followed through well on my shot, […]

Peter Vogt

I’m a writer. An essayist, to be more exact. I tell stories here—true stories, from my own life, in hopes they will make a positive difference in yours.

I share laughs and tears, insights and observations, frustrations and realizations, relying all the while on the storytelling wisdom of Julia Cameron, author of The Right to Write.

It is a great paradox that the more personal, focused, and specific your writing becomes, the more universally it communicates.

Purpose: It Exists, It Matters, and It Only Needs to Be Uncovered — Not Discovered

November 18, 2014/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Peter Vogt

I’ve been afraid to write this post, to let this post come out of me. I still am. And while I want to say that I’ve been psyching myself up for over an hour to get going on it (which I have), the truth is that I’ve been psyching myself up to affirm the message […]

Peter Vogt

I’m a writer. An essayist, to be more exact. I tell stories here—true stories, from my own life, in hopes they will make a positive difference in yours.

I share laughs and tears, insights and observations, frustrations and realizations, relying all the while on the storytelling wisdom of Julia Cameron, author of The Right to Write.

It is a great paradox that the more personal, focused, and specific your writing becomes, the more universally it communicates.

Lessons Learned While Shopping for a Halloween Costume

October 28, 2014/4 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Peter Vogt

Shopping for a Halloween costume is not what it used to be — that’s what I’ve discovered today, three days before Halloween, during my utterly unsuccessful attempt to sink what I thought would be a gimme putt: buying a simple police officer costume for my six-year-old son Kian. Here’s what I’ve learned about contemporary children’s […]

Peter Vogt

I’m a writer. An essayist, to be more exact. I tell stories here—true stories, from my own life, in hopes they will make a positive difference in yours.

I share laughs and tears, insights and observations, frustrations and realizations, relying all the while on the storytelling wisdom of Julia Cameron, author of The Right to Write.

It is a great paradox that the more personal, focused, and specific your writing becomes, the more universally it communicates.

As a Writer I Must Write – Whether Anyone Is Reading Or Not

May 1, 2014/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Peter Vogt

My worst fear as a writer is that I will invest a bunch of my limited time and energy into writing something — putting my heart and soul and mind into every word — and no one, not a single person, will read it. My second-worst fear is that someone will. So — here I […]

Peter Vogt

I’m a writer. An essayist, to be more exact. I tell stories here—true stories, from my own life, in hopes they will make a positive difference in yours.

I share laughs and tears, insights and observations, frustrations and realizations, relying all the while on the storytelling wisdom of Julia Cameron, author of The Right to Write.

It is a great paradox that the more personal, focused, and specific your writing becomes, the more universally it communicates.

I Want My Mommy

November 16, 2013/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Peter Vogt

I’m in a beautiful countryside house, and the aroma of newly cooked Norwegian lefse is floating, ala an old Daffy Duck cartoon, all the way upstairs from the kitchen to the bedroom where I’m writing, right to my appreciative nostrils. It’s the same type of smell that filled my childhood home on the days my […]

Peter Vogt

I’m a writer. An essayist, to be more exact. I tell stories here—true stories, from my own life, in hopes they will make a positive difference in yours.

I share laughs and tears, insights and observations, frustrations and realizations, relying all the while on the storytelling wisdom of Julia Cameron, author of The Right to Write.

It is a great paradox that the more personal, focused, and specific your writing becomes, the more universally it communicates.