Storytelling
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Sensory Ghosts
All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses. Friedrich Nietzsche Did you know that us humans possess between five and six million olfaction (smell) sensors. Because those sensors combine their data to determine odors, we can differentiate an average of one trillion different smells? Comparatively, we have between 2000… Continue reading
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Lost in These Autumn Breezes
Summer ends, and Autumn comes, and he who would have it otherwise would have high tide always and a full moon every night. Hal Borland Minnesotans like to joke that if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes. While that isn’t exactly true, I have seen it go from summer to fall practically overnight.… Continue reading
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The Man With the Bag / The ICE Man Cometh
Eating chocolate cake in a bag. John Lennon I have an interesting background. Mom and Dad were born in the coal-mining area of Pennsylvania. Dad’s parents emigrated from Poland and Mom’s grandparents came from Poland (grandfather) and Czechoslovakia (grandmother). I was born and raised in Arizona and became an amalgamation of the American Southwest, Eastern… Continue reading
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A Day of Visibility
All of us are put in boxes by our family, by our religion, by our society, our moment in history, even our own bodies. Some people have the courage to break free. Geena Rocero I have said and done far too many unkind and thoughtless things in my life. Some are long forgotten, but there… Continue reading
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Love, It’s a Bitch
In boxing, I had a lot of fear. Fear was good. But, for the first time, in the bout with Muhammad Ali, I didn’t have any fear. I thought, ‘This is easy. This is what I’ve been waiting for’. No fear at all. No nervousness. And I lost. George Foreman The following is a semi… Continue reading
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Kitchen Ministry
I just hope Americans come to understand that food isn’t something to be manipulated by our teeth and shoved down our gullet, that it’s our spiritual and physical nourishment and important to our well-being as a nation. Alice Waters When I was just a lad of 10 or 11, my mother required an operation followed… Continue reading
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Three Vignettes
I can barely conceive of a type of beauty in which there is no Melancholy. Charles Baudelaire Foster’s Creek Few mourned when Clarence Findley died. He did not live a life that endeared him to many people. Clarence Findley was a hard drinking, mean spirited cuss of a man, and you could count on one… Continue reading
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Mirror, Mirror
Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only. Samuel Butler Doppelgänger: The ghostly counterpart of a living person. From the German words doppel, meaning double, and ganger, meaning goer. I saw him only one time and that was 48 years ago. He was tall with really long, unkept, brown… Continue reading
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Man Boobs
I guess I don’t so much mind being old, as I mind being fat and old. Benjamin Franklin Gary stood naked before the mirror and grimaced. Although he had been denying it to himself for the last several years, there was no way to pretend any longer. He had man boobs. He tried sucking in… Continue reading
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I Am More Comely Than You
Beauty awakens the soul to act. Dante Alighieri Several years ago I heard an interesting program on Minnesota Public Radio’s “Speaking of Faith.” The host, Krista Tippett, and her guest were discussing myths and stories from ancient times. One that really struck me had to do with desire between men and women. The story went that a woman… Continue reading
Can You Hear Me Now 