Have I told you yet about Merlin? I haven’t? That’s surprising, we’ve been sitting here for all of two seconds. Merlin was the best horse in the world. He was mine for 14 years. He’s been gone now for 11 years, nearly as long as I had him. I still miss him every single day. […]
(Anti) Social Media, Disposable Friendships, and the Rare-but-Real Honest-to-Goodness Discussion
You are going to think I’m crazy, but I swear it’s true—I have witnessed rational discussions about controversial topics on Facebook. Ain’t lying. It’s for real. One of the first times I encountered such a unicorn was in a down-thread side discussion between a vegan and a cattle rancher. The two people exchanged ideas respectfully […]
COVID-19 and the Writing Process
I feel a little bit like the Burgess Meredith character Henry Bemis in The Twilight Zone episode “Time Enough at Last.” In that episode, Bemis, an avid reader, finally has time to read to his heart’s content when he – and the local library – are the lone survivors of a nuclear war. However, just […]
Life and Love during Coronavirus
It seems incredible to me that just 10 days ago from the day I am writing this, I was urging my partner to stick to his plans of traveling to Texas to visit his son at Shepherd Air Force Base because, I figured, it’d be the last window to do so. I was secretly still […]
Write the Story
Once upon a time, when I was in about second grade, my almost-best-friend borrowed a record from her older brother’s room and I heard David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” for the first time. In the song, Major Tom, an astronaut, leaves his space capsule, which then takes off for Earth without him, stranding him in space. […]
Pass the Skull Cookies, Please
Here’s a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon – Death Café. Officially described as a place where “people, often strangers, gather to eat cake, drink tea and discuss death,” Death Cafés are discussion groups, not support groups or counseling sessions. The Death Café I attend does sometimes meet in a café, but we’ve also […]
