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EXCERPTS
A Short, Happy Life
He came to me in a dream, and he assured me that he was real. I have no
reason to doubt him. I have often had dreams in which I knew that I was dreaming.
These are called lucid dreams, in which I am a kind of cognizant participant, like
an audience member at an interactive play…
Bad Pitch
Casey was at bat again, after a homer in the top of the third, his second in the
fifth game of the series. It was like he always knew what pitch was coming next. I
had suspected something funny when Casey began hitting almost every pitch from
every pitcher in the last four games, and his average shot up to 850…
Chasing Shadows, Chasing Us
On a hill overlooking a meadow of high, wild grass, two brothers sat silently
several feet apart with their legs drawn up to their chests, in the shadow of a large
cloud. They wore only shorts, and their bodies were wet from the humid August
morning. A slight gust of wind cooled the older boy as the shadow of the cloud
moved and gave him to the sunlight. He stood, stretched, rubbed his eyes, and
looked around. Overhead, he noticed a buzzard slowly making wide circles against
a large patch of blue East Texas sky…
Clichés
He wanted desperately to avoid clichés during this lunch meeting with his
former lover. Although sometimes he wanted them when they didn’t come. He
hoped she wouldn’t say, “It’s been a long time.” He didn’t want to give in and reply,
as required in some script, “Yes, two years.”…
Saved by the Cell
I had hiked a couple of days before along a gravel road and then along the
Blue Ridge Parkway for a couple of miles. I wanted more exercise during this time
away in the mountains that were frequently socked in with fog and drenched with
rain. Also, my muse usually visits me when I hike…
The Ring
Ray sat in the stuffed chair against the wall, looking at his hands. Nichole,
his therapist, sat opposite to Ray in a chair by her desk and twiddled her pencil.
She prompted the beginning of the weekly session. “The weather was nice this past
weekend. Did you do anything interesting?
“I took a hike Saturday, like you suggested,” Ray told his therapist, as he
leaned back and looked at the foggy morning outside the window…
The Thanksgiving I Almost Exploded
“This will be our first Thanksgiving together,” my wife of one week said
with a smile. I had met most of her family at the wedding of course, but I had not
had dinner with them, except for the hors d’oeuvre and wedding cake during our
small reception in the basement of the Culberson Baptist Church. While not
“hicks”, they were Indiana country folk of a good measure of humor and a flair for
good cooking. I was looking forward to the feast with my new relatives…
You Don’t Know Fear
Brian really got concerned when they were lined up along a blood-clotted
stretch of ground in front of a pockmarked earthen wall next to a pit. They had
been blindfolded, but he was still hoping that this was part of a sick joke. How far
would these jokers take this? Then he realized that Max was in this, too, standing
right next to him and had looked catatonic…
- Essays -
A History of Warfare
The history of mankind is arguably a history of warfare, from within the
family unit, to between tribes, to conflicts between confederations of nations, and
between religions. There have been many forms of government devised by humans
to control themselves from within and to protect themselves from the ambitions of
other, competing nations...
A Nation of Immigrants
We are a land, or nation, of immigrants. Every nation is a nation of
immigrants. Assuming the theory of evolution and the spread of Homo sapiens
“out of Africa” is correct, then only the first arrivals to all the various parts of the
world were not immigrants, in that they were the first humans to set foot on that
soil, wherever that was…
Ancient Astronauts...Maybe
IMO, the explanations offered by Ancient Astronaut theorists explain some
of the events of the past better than do some explanations in the Bible. Those AA
explanations seem to fill the gaps and holes that are so apparent in the Bible.
Remember, the Bible was written by a people who believed that diseases were
caused by demons, and that the sun could be made to stand still…
The Course of Civilization Directed by Madmen?
Around 1998 I listened to a radio program that described a medical
breakthrough by a team of doctors who had discovered the reason for their
patient’s psychosis, implying that now that the disease could be identified, it could
potentially be treated with medication…
Time Travel Is Not Possible
The Ancient Astronauts theorists opine that time travel from the future to the
past is theoretically possible. I disagree. If time travel were possible, you could
from some point in the future decide to go back and change a decision that you
made in the past. But there would be ripple effects. … … while back in the past
you might make a decision that would cause ripples that might result in your not
being able to decide to go back to the past.
…
