If you’ve read much of my stuff, you know I always sign off with Easy does it. Ride or die.
What does that really mean?
In Stairway to Heaven, Robert Plant sings, “’Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings.” He was right. Words — and sayings — usually have layers. “Ride or Die” is one of them.
Most people hear it and think it’s about living reckless — taking so much risk you don’t care if you die. But that’s not it.
When I call myself a Montanan, I mean two things:
- I live part-time in Montana.
- I’m spiritually aligned with Montana — the land of risk-on, go-big-or-go-home, YOLO energy.
When we landed here, @wild_woman_MT and I knew we were home.
Montana — especially Bozeman — is full of freaks, the good kind. The creatives. The misfits. The ones society tossed aside. Some are a little off-kilter, some downright wild, but most are chasing something real — adrenaline, risk, beauty — and going full tilt to get it.
ALL ARE WELCOME
Here, both Ride or Die and Easy Does It are welcome. It’s a land that doesn’t judge difference — it celebrates it. Montanans reject conformity and the people who push it.
Don’t believe me?
Come here. Go to Outlaw Brewing, The Griz, or Cat’s Paw. Have a drink and try being judgmental. Try looking down on people who don’t fit your idea of how someone should look.
Then hit me up on Threads and tell me how it went.
Or — take the other path. Come to The Griz around 3:30PM after a big “cold smoke” powder day. Sit, listen, and just be. You’ll hear it — “the forests echo with laughter”.
See what I did there? Two paths. Your choice. Always has been. And yeah — “there’s still time to change the road you’re on.”
But the sand’s sprinting out fast – YOLO. At least on earth as we know it. Know anyone who’s come back to tell the story?
When me and @wild_woman_MT showed up here, Montana didn’t judge us for the lifestyle we were chasing.
Alternative? Sure. But it works. Do you know any other financial advisors who live like I do? Not ones who “work remotely” from home. I mean ones who fly when they want, work from the air, stay connected from wilderness — real wilderness — and still show up for clients. Who unplug only when they choose to.
If you do, hit me up. I’d love to meet them. I Probably can’t hire them though — they’ve already cracked the code.
Ski legends like Glen Plake embody that same Montana spirit — living off-grid, full throttle. Same goes for Shane McConkey and Doug Coombs. Outlaws on snow. If you know their names, you get it. If you don’t, you’re probably more of an Easy Does It. And that’s okay. The world needs both.
If you want to fit in here — in Bozeman or anywhere in Montana — here’s a clue – love both. Don’t judge either. You’ll be welcomed and treated like a friend.
Do the opposite? Well… don’t say I didn’t warn you.
@wild_woman_MT is Easy Does It at her core — but she’s got plenty of Ride or Die. I’m the opposite. When we started dating, I had almost no Easy Does It in me. I’ve learned some since. I’m not dropping into Corbet’s or shredding the Big Couloir anymore. I don’t like to tomahawk these days — too old for that s***.
But I still carve rails on edge. Always have, always will. If God allows it, I’ll be railing at 99. Check in then — the 99-year-old Ride or Die dude.
We’ve been together since freshman year of high school. At first, sure — it was biology. But what’s kept us together is balance. Her calm to my chaos. My push to her pull.
We all have both sides — Ride or Die and Easy Does It.
Same goes for investing: risk-on vs. risk-off. That’s my craft — helping people balance the two. Mixing Ride or Die with Easy Does It to build a portfolio that fits just right – personalized. Personal finance — emphasis on personal.
Now, back to love.
In love, Ride or Die means your soulmate — the one you can’t live without. When one goes, the other usually follows.
I’ve seen it. My father-in-law, Larry, passed first. @wild_woman_MT’s mom, Elaine, followed less than two years later. My dad, Fred, died on 9/11/2023. My mom, Jean, passed just over two years later — September 20th of this year. Read my “Remembrance & Legacy” post to learn what they taught me.
All four left us in the Fall. There’s meaning there. I’ll write more about that — seasons, cycles, the flow of things. You can’t fight them. You can only learn to ride them. Patterns like that tell the truth.
So yeah — when @wild_woman_MT rides, I ride too. When she’s done, I probably won’t be far behind. Maybe she’ll outlast me — women often do. But when I go, part of her will go too. Her Ride or Die will be gone — off chasing the next adventure without her.
She’ll always be my Ride or Die.
STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN
Ever stared at a modern painting and just didn’t get it—until someone handed you a new lens? Suddenly, it makes sense. That’s perspective. Music is the same.
I was raised Seventh-Day Adventist. Christianity is my native language. I’ve learned to translate other truths into that language so they make sense to me—like the Universal Law – “Give and you shall receive” is just “Cast your bread upon the water.” Adventists believed Stairway to Heaven was Satanic. Maybe even written by Satan himself. Robert Plant said he channeled it while Jimmy Page strummed chords by the fire.
This was scary stuff when I was a kid. This was recorded a few years after I was born. Don’t listen to it. The devil will eat your soul. This kind of thinking runs in all cultures. There is a black Santa in Nordic tradition that steals children who misbehave. What a horrid way to teach children. Through fear and not love. Fear and love the – the “two paths you can go by.”
But, I’m an outlaw, remember? So I listened to it a lot. Fortunately, I am still here.
So let’s stop being afraid and just listen with an open mind.
This song holds multitudes. I could write ten posts on it, easy. But let me hand you just one lens:
THE LADY IS CREATIVITY
The muse we chase. The force that lives inside us, aching to be born. Spring waiting to break through the frost.
This song is about that. The two paths. That choice.
Will you let your creative life speak—or crush it?
There are monsters on this earth who hunt creativity and in turn creatives.
Who try to bottle it, kill it, steal from it. Sometimes out of jealousy. Sometimes just to drain you dry.
To those monsters: I doubt you’ll read this. You’ve cut yourselves off from the light. In Christianity, we call that the “unforgivable sin.” A soul so far gone it can’t hear God anymore. Your “still small voice” has been extinguished.
Usually by envy and greed. They can no longer feel in their hearts – the difference between right from wrong. They are spiritually dead with no light or creative spark and they can be deadly to creatives – literally.
MY WARNING TO MONSTERS!
Don’t try to trap lightning in a bottle. It will only kill you in the end.
MOVING ON…
Now press play. Rock on. If this changes how you hear the song—hit me up on Threads.
I’d love to know.
