Photo; Ryan Hetherington Keys This past October (eight months ago now) I bought a motorcycle. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. If you held a gun to my head I couldn’t tell you how I made that decision. I’d have to say – well, I saw it advertised on Facebook market place. […]
This field of beautiful alien creatures – mingling and socializing in some indecipherable ritual. Hands and arms articulated – call and reply to the woman on the grass. One could feel threatened or excluded, but why? This soup of humans has a common pursuit – all of us are bathed by the same sunlight […]
I remember my introduction to organized religion this way; I was a child. I had been to Sunday School (my Mother taught it for a while – not long as I recall) and I was familiar with the idea of a benevolent, revered fellow who had existed sometime in the past. A good example for a child. I was mostly taught to sing songs about it/him. I was probably five years old.
She is approaching from down the block —there is a yoga mat strung from her left shoulder, her coat disheveled, mixing fabric with the strap and wrestling against it. She turns, stumbles, turns again and all the while rifles through her pockets with one hand then the other.
The idea of reconciliation can’t be defined by an offering from those at the source of the wrongdoing. It has to be an idea of completion in the mind of the aggrieved. That is the very nature of the word. You don’t ask a bully whether or not he is a bully. Reconciliation cannot be defined by colonials.
Buckle up for this one. Everyone lives all lives. How am I to even explain this? I remember having this idea when I was in my mid-thirties, early forties. This was a time of introspection, a time to practice gratitude, meditation, sobriety. I had just become sober. I had just become married. The […]
In the still morning air of mid November, the orange horizon greets a tired mind. Coffee and a quiet moment by the window – the ritual, the brain preparation – there is time to anticipate todays mysteries. Across the street an ancient brick home, now offices for a group of surgeons is the only […]
It’s a Bed and Breakfast – such a simple concept – people need a place to sleep and they need a meal to get the day started. However, the breakfast part has always seemed like an add-on to me. Like someone was trying to make something out of nothing, so they added a […]
Today’s thousand words There is a type of therapy that takes into account all these things that are wrong. James is going to the doctor today. Getting fixed isn’t as difficult as you think. It’s pills, sure, but that’s just the start. The dances and the nights running down the street with your […]
Today’s one thousand words. The air is supposed to be calm and quiet – who would plan different? On this side there is peace – inside the mind there is this desire for peace and the need for a certain type of day. So the journey is to a coffee shop – […]
Today’s one thousand words. Jimmy drives a red truck. Of all the attributes a man could choose to represent him in the vast interconnectedness of people and things in the universe, Jim decided at a very early age that the idea and the image of a red truck would be it – […]
Today’s one thousand words; Sally is a grocers daughter. She loves French jazz from the 1920’s and regardless of how people label her, make fun of her and give her trouble, she wears cloche hats – in the style of Anais Nin, long, black sleeveless sweaters with fringes – and utilizes a cigarette […]
I had the strangest dream. Not because of its content but because I honestly can’t remember when I had it. To me that is very strange. Here I am in this day, this perfectly normal day – except that today, unlike any other day I remember a dream – today I suddenly […]
This morning I read a piece by Sylvia Plath that came up on the news feed – unfathomably deep and beautiful poetry from a truly tortured soul. I haven’t read enough of her work. It can be difficult. It’s the kind of writing that can unseat your day, but my mind didn’t […]
Today a phone call from the affiliate store to tell us a ‘man in a fedora’ is on the way to ask about a shaving related item. Some time went by and I saw him at the front door, dressed casually – but like a gentleman and I enjoyed the moment, welcoming him. He’s like a […]
It’s a pleasant drive to leave Hailey Idaho Southbound on US 75 then Eastbound across US 20, especially in the morning – say around eight or nine. At that time on a Wednesday there is no traffic. All the people in the valley drive north between six and seven – these […]
“Why Trombone?” This question is posed across the aisle at a table on the patio of a coffee shop and the short answer is washed out by the sound of a passing gravel truck. Two men, aged thirty-something are speaking across lattes, muffins, and a local music-scene magazine, open to the cheap […]
There are two regular visitors to my writing world on Mondays at the park. I started conversing with them individually last year in early summer when I noticed their gear behind the table shelter, had to turn off a loud abandoned radio and felt compelled to explain myself when the owner returned […]
Tonight Marguerite will sleep like the dead. Diesel belch and rumble —the tractor, hands-on gear train and throttle. Stiff clutch-shank and pedal jerk —foot, ankle, and calf battered —engine growl, twisting torque and the platform of the machine hovering, shaking with fueled intent, and the mower with thrashing blades, sliding chains, pinion, universal joints. […]
True story; I am fifty nine years old today. This simple fact seems to hold more weight than it should. I am fortunate to have arrived here, some don’t and some get way beyond. And I think any feeling – positive or negative – about this milestone is a product of ego. Where am I? […]
I gave my eldest daughter four books for Christmas last year. As she unwrapped them, and thanked me I felt compelled to explain my reasoning. I told her that these authors were the people most responsible for the way I think today. Her first comment, “Which of these should I avoid?” Two months later, and […]
Anyone who knows me understands my aversion to media. I have a healthy distrust of style, motive, and standards. I recently caught myself commenting (again) on the lower fifth dialogue and attitude of dragging audience by the nose – not allowing for intellect – in a film I had hoped would offer much more. And […]
I remember the first time I heard this theme – I was music director for CHFM in Calgary and I was in my office performing some task when the Warner Rep came by to drop this piece on my desk. All the reps knew I love Miles (and Jazz in general); I would […]
I’ve recently connected the Robert Hunter lyric; ‘…statements just seem vain at last’ and the idea of creativity – narcissism, participation, the different kinds of artists, performers, entertainers – their agenda, or lack thereof, with my understanding; that is – facing yourself as a conduit for beauty and sharing, intentionally or not. It’s a […]
I’ve noticed that my preferences for listening have evolved with the advent of playlist enabled equipment. I don’t think this is a bad thing, it’s just a thing. I’m no vinyl snob. I don’t advocate that one sound is any better than another, and I’ve listened to all of it. I’ve listened […]