“Any day vertical is a good day.”
That’s what my dad used to tell me. I don’t know if he said the same thing to Pammy or Kenny, but for me, it stuck. It was one of the rare, non-coach-speak truths he handed down—a simple maxim, stripped of complexity, but somehow expansive enough to hold the weight of life for the very rebellious me.
Every day, on this planet, upright, breathing, and moving, is a good day.
Life, of course, doesn’t always feel that way. It has this nasty habit of grinding you down, piling on the problems and pressures until you’re sure you’re about to buckle. It’s not just the big stuff—loss, heartbreak, fear. It’s the small, relentless drip of daily frustrations that can wear you thin. Life can be a bitch like that.
And yet, here we are, you and me, vertical. Upright. Somehow standing in the face of it all. Standing tall.
When life feels like too much, I think about that. About what it really means to still be here. To wake up, put one foot in front of the other, and breathe. There’s no guarantee we get to do this, no promise that tomorrow will come. But today? Today, we are upright.
Every day vertical is a good day.
Now, I’m not saying life is fair, or kind, or even close to what we think it should be. It’s none of those things. Life is messy and uneven. It’s rarely just, never impartial, and certainly not equitable. But life is. It exists. We exist. And for that alone, I think we can give thanks.
When I think about this idea—this celebration of verticality—it reminds me of my iPhone photography. I shoot a lot of vertical compositions. Not on purpose, necessarily, but because they just feel right. There’s something affirming about a vertical frame. It’s upright, steady, and full of possibility. The act of shooting vertically mirrors my dad’s old saying: any day vertical is a good day.
And let’s be real—your life isn’t perfect. Your relationships aren’t perfect. Your career, your bank account, your plans—none of it is perfect. You aren’t perfect. And yet, here you are. Alive.
So what is perfect? It’s simpler than we think. It’s being here, right now, upright in a universe that owes us absolutely nothing. We haven’t earned this life, and we don’t deserve it any more than anyone else. But we have it. And that’s enough.
This world, with all its sharp edges and soft moments, its chaos and calm, is ours to inhabit for as long as we’re allowed. So we get up, we keep going, and we remind ourselves of the truth:
Every day vertical is a good day.
When I take photos, I think about my dad’s words. I think about this vertical life we’ve been gifted. And I wonder if maybe, just maybe, the simplest things—standing, breathing, being—are what make life extraordinary.
Here we are. Alive. Isn’t that something?
Click
Jack.
