#467: SPOTLIGHT: Matt Wallaert

#467: Matt Wallaert 

June 9, 2026

A Backbeat of Community

Question for Matt:  

Can you describe a meaningful experience from the past month that unexpectedly led you to reflect on family, legacy, and the ways joy shows up in your life?

Matt's Response: 

My draft for this was late because I spent the weekend bailing someone out of jail.

The next morning, she was all remorse: “Is this how my family will see me from now on?”
And of course the answer is temporarily yes and eventually no. Failures, particularly visible ones, are like a total eclipse; for just a moment, as it occludes our ability to see any light, failures feel like the end of all things.

But Sunday was Mother’s Day and we grilled and people laughed and there was joy. Not unrestricted joy, not joy without bounds, but still joy. The shadow is still passing over the sun.

I’ve been to jail. In the 16,065 days so far, it was probably the worst. I felt angry and sad and embarrassed, split into two versions of myself: before and after. 

And now I don’t think about it at all, except to tell someone else that this too shall pass.

I no longer believe in before and after, just a long, continually updated now. I experience my life like a held breath or a sustained note or the longest wave. I am unconcerned with my legacy because it is all a matter of levels; zoom out far enough and I do not exist, zoom in close enough and I am all that can be seen.
Not just in the end, but in the beginning and in the now and in the forever, failures and joy are just a matter of resolution.