I met a woman today who was out of her mind. She was quiet and tender, a bit like trying to speak with a lost child in the middle of a chaotic carnival. She had the look of someone who was afraid you might hurt her, like the many others who had come before. She didn’t know who I was. Hell, I’m not even sure she knew who she was. I called her Mary, though that is not her real name.
In The Shadow Of Sandia
A reflection on the terrible beauty of New Mexico and the American Southwest Originally published in 2003. The sign was hand-lettered and nailed to a telephone pole near the road. It read: “Lost. Two Golden Retrievers.” It was basically your run-of-the-mill “lost dog” poster, but this was Albuquerque, the foothills…
A Stream Has No Memory
There is an episode in Chapter Six of “The House At Pooh Corner” where the woodland creatures invent a game known as Poohsticks. The rules are simple and straightforward. Participants drop sticks on one side of the little bridge over the stream and then hurry to the other side to see which stick arrives first. It’s a game of chance, although some have argued there is an element of skill involved. Eeyore proved particularly adept at it.
A Little Blue Dog Named Seven
It’s no secret that I was not a big fan of Seven. I grew up with plenty of dogs, though my wife did not. We’d had our own dog, Seamus, an incredible Chow/Shepherd mix, for over 15 years and we loved him well. Seamus has been dead for at least…
Don’t Bother Creating Unless You Absolutely Have To
Unless you feel compelled to act, beyond anything that is reasonable, logical, or sensible, you shouldn’t bother. As a famous actor once said, “If you can imagine yourself doing anything else, you should go do that.”
An Uncomplicated Life
Life is complicated. I suspect it always has been. Throughout human history, if you weren’t dealing with technologically-induced societal disruption, you were fighting class hierarchy, strict social oversight, ecological disaster, infectious disease, and apex predators. No one gets off easy. It’s just the way it is.
We All Want To Be Told Who To Like, How To Think, And What To Do
Human beings lie. We lie all the time. We lie to each other. We lie to ourselves. It is part of what makes us human. We are not entirely alone within the broader animal kingdom, as there are plenty of other species who use various forms of deception, pretending to be something they’re not. It’s just that they usually do so as a defensive mechanism against would-be predators. Most creatures, do not try to deceive other members of the same species, let alone themselves. We seem to have a lock on that little peccadillo. Well done, us.
A Change In Seasons
I enjoy the change in seasons, and fully embrace the shifts in weather on a semi-reliable timetable. Unlike places such as Southern California, where it changes ever so slightly, and no one really notices. I’ve been in LA when it gets slightly cooler for a few days and the locals…
Nobody Knows Anything, And Other Things I’ve Learned
I’m going to be 59 years old in a few months. I find this to be unfathomable. That’s just shy of sixty, which is absolutely ludicrous and not at all believable, or even remotely humorous. That’s old people territory. This is when you join a cohort of shuffling geriatrics who get cheap movie theater tickets, free rides on the bus, and pudding for dessert. Old as fuck, as the kids like to say.
Life On Goshen Landing Road
I live at the confluence of a busy two lane highway and a dead-end country road in a house that was once an early 18th-century tavern and stagecoach stop on the way from Philadelphia to Cape May. The busy road is a major artery on the bay side of our peninsula, and is the backcountry alternative to the Garden State Parkway.