Ben Barnz’s Glorious Things

Every week, CultureWag asks a genius to recommend 3 gifts from the Muses. Mr. Ben Barnz is a doting father (he wrote the lovely We: An Adoption and a Memoir) and a smarty producer, lately of HBO Max's Genera+ion,  the Gen Z opus co-created by his wunderkind daughter Zelda and his dazzling husband Daniel. Our Ben blesses you with these:

1. Salt by Nayyirah Waheed. Her poems are absolute. They are direct and cut through all the bullshit. She speaks to my heart and my mind simultaneously. She helped me be more concise and inspires me to remember that words matter. How you use language affects those around you. 

2. My husband Daniel Barnz inspires me: His tenacity, his vision, his fortitude, his mind, his kindness and his leadership. I find nothing sexier or more inspiring than bearing witness to someone who is doing exactly what they are meant to be doing in this lifetime.

3. I won’t go into details but there was an evening in college with three friends outside, surrounded by apple trees, where I absolutely and definitively understood that everything is connected. Truly. There is no separation between my mind and my soul or yours, and the world around us. I understood it was something I had to remember, because that truth would be my north star.