I became a Literature major when the college I transferred to didn’t offer Writing. The thing I liked best about studying lit was deconstructionism. Discovering the reasons why writers wrote what they did, what events influenced their content, and how they integrated strong symbolism into their works. I then took the idea of deconstructionism to other art forms. From painting, to film, to music. When I was a young man I listened to too much heavy metal. My hearing loss…
On the walk from the garage to the house I spied a cluster web in the corner of the awning. Some fat spider had a few sacks of meat in full view. I couldn’t allow it. Usually I’m ok with the arachnids, as they do way more good than harm. But this? This was an arrogant display. “Sorry, pal,” I said as I knocked the web from the awning with a broom, then banged the shit out of the broom…
Sometime in January I made a commitment to get better. To become a better human being. To be less cynical and more open to the ideas of others. And while the short term results have, for the most part, been amazing–the more I practice I find myself routinely confronted with certain baggage that gets in the way of breaking through the din of the world to a more peaceful state-of-mind. Most notably the concepts that get in the way are…
When you’re 15 you can’t wait to be an adult. To drive. Vote. Drink. Have sex. Take adventures. All the fun stuff. A few short years ago you were chasing make-believe boats along gutters in the rain, now you want to be grown up. At 25 you feel caught in between. Sure, you’ve got all the stuff you wanted when you were 15, but somehow it’s not as great as you once thought. And it feels like no one takes…
Patton Whistler was an attractive man of 35–caucasian with tanned skin and dark features. He married a lovely woman ten years prior, and together they had two young daughters. They lived in a spacious bungalow in Los Angeles. Life was good. Predictable. It was a perfect spring day. Patton walked along a bustlng sidewalk then turned into a building and took the elevator to the fourth floor where he arrived at his physician’s office. A few minutes after checking in…
Two roads diverged in a wood when I was 16. Long before I ever read Robert Frost. I was on my fourth high school and was sitting in a classroom taking an SAT test. They said it was required to graduate, so I couldn’t skip that day. I had to graduate. Only, college was not something that we talked about in my family. I was the oldest of four children. The only male. I religiously attended the church of heavy…
