Dad’s words are elusive. I have pages and pages of his later life, but those that reveal the brief period between leaving Marysville and graduating high school are sparse. They reveal little of what he endured or how he felt. [...]
There is a moment, almost radical in pulse, when life bursts from its winter slumber. Flowers slowly rise from the warming ground. Buds discreetly crawl from the craggy arms of seemingly lifeless trees. In a heartbeat, they unfurl in an [...]
Point of View and Worldview are complex. We are born with our genes to help guide our way, but they are no more than a floor on which to stand. Events mold and shape us as the world evolves, but [...]
Death. I imagine all the ways to deal with such an end. You can come up swinging. Or, you can allow it to be subsumed into a moment in which you become consumed by grief for that now dead world. [...]
When they cleared Marysville, Grandmother pulled over. Tears stained her dress. Uncle Keith, too young to get his license, begged his Mom to drive. Distraught, her distress alarmed the boys. They switched places. On the way to Santa Barbara, she [...]
When Pearl Harbor happened, it was like an itch that commanded the big scratch. The day it happened, Grandad called his kids in to hear the radio. You could hear a pin drop but for the announcer and his dramatic [...]
When Dad died, there were 2 versions of his life written for his obituary. My brother’s and mine. My brother’s version won which was only right. Living in the same town, he had been there for the heartbreaking decline. I [...]
It’s easy to believe that a floodgate can just open and spill its guts. Years of retaining soaking rains and melting snow gone in a second. Like that, an avalanche of water crashes and crushes everything. But any good engineer [...]
I’ve struggled with where to begin. That’s the thing about stories. Where does it all begin and where does it end. So, I will begin where all good stories do – in the middle. It is from where we are [...]
Yesterday, a writer friend and I were discussing critical mass. At what point do we discover a lack of critical mass? Can we find our creative meaning without it? Is critical mass necessary to our own wellbeing and that of [...]