How did this happen? The alt lit master of ceremonies, Steve Roggenbuck, was in the NY Times Style Magazine this past weekend. 

I’ve followed Steve for about a year and a half, and though we’ve corresponded a few times, when I’ve gone to his website and seen his catchphrase slogan — “live my lief” — its meaning didn’t quite connect with me until this weekend.

“Live my lief.” It’s a command, not for us to live our own lives, but to live Steve’s life, to live like Steve. I always thought of it as a a new YOLO/live-life-to-the-fullest-type empowerment statement, but for the first time, I thought of it as Steve living above the rest of us, not asking us to be around him, but to follow him.

Now there’s Steve standing in the woods, living his “lief” in front of millions of New York Times readers.  It’s probably an outer body experience for him–it would be for me at least–but Steve doesn’t have classically cool confidence, instead he is diligently devoted.

One of Steve’s heroes (I’ve only ascertained this from some of his videos, never spoken to him about it) is Gary Vaynerchuk. Vaynerchuk started out selling wine and has now become known more for his social media savvy and inspirational speeches than any chardonnay he may still(?) sell. Now Steve is doing something like that too for an inspirational message that might be catching on: live my lief.

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