How I love those who never sell out or lose sight of themselves, and who hold their ground like wise old trees against the elements. They’re rare, these few: they don’t conform, or allow themselves to be driven from their purpose by the imagined needs and wants of the societies and cultures into which they’re born. They’re holy messengers, even when they most appear to be dreamers and fools; leaders, […]
A walk around the block is enough to tell me how much, in these public lives we lead, we owe it to each other to make our own little contributions of neatness, order, and beauty. Everyone benefits from flowers, for instance, a bit of greenery, and a swept sidewalk. Even bare unplanted space that’s raked periodically and kept free of litter is a positive statement that’s good for the eye […]
We’ve all seen it: the grocery stores are stocked with plastic fruits and vegetables, most of which are laced with poison. In neighborhoods far and wide, perfectly good garden space in sunny locations is taken up by lawns, many of which are also poisoned. Trees are cut down to make room for more concrete, upon which to park even more vehicles, which in many cases outnumber the residents. And so […]
Notes of an AlchemistPoems by Loren EiseleyIllustrated by Laszlo KubinyiNew York : Charles Scribner’s Sons (1972) Found in a local used bookstore, after what struck me as a dreary drive past pot stores, fast food joints, and numerous other businesses that have no reason for existing, other than to satisfy a society that prizes bad habits and unhealthy living; past men and women pushing shopping carts bearing all of their […]
We see them everywhere — little children watching their mothers and fathers intent on their phones, staring, necks broken, spirits nowhere to be found. I’m here — and I’m so alone. And they will be more so, when given their own. ~ [ 2139 ]
Believe it or not, upon its first publication, An Absurdist Play was liked well enough by a high school teacher that he used it in a poetry segment of his English class. The experiment failed, as I thought it might, and for his valiant effort, the teacher was met with puzzled expressions perhaps not unlike those suggested in the stage directions of the poem itself. I doubt the teacher really […]
There is the news, there is social media, and there is the real world. In the real world, in a so-called conservative area, one can attend a grandchild’s basketball game and scarcely see what some people desperately believe is a “white person.” The crowd of parents and grandparents are a beautiful mixture of ethnic backgrounds, of shades, colors, and features; and their children and grandchildren run back and forth and […]
That so many of us are eager and willing to embrace ignorance is not a new thing. Willful ignorance is what gives power to the powerful; makes us vulnerable to injustices of every kind; and enslaves us in a narrow world of our own unwitting creation. That letting others do our thinking for us is easier, cannot be further from the truth; we need only look at the results. It […]
While this society we have created is teeming with distractions, and is noisome and unsettling at every turn, we must not allow ourselves, in our hunger for relief, to be mere seekers of entertainment. Entertainment for entertainment’s sake is more distraction. We cannot thrive unless we are engaged. Even if it is something as simple as watching the rain and listening to the sound it makes on the roof, being […]
In terms of gun violence, the city we live in is no different than others scattered across this land. Every time we leave the house, we know we can be shot and killed. It might be during a walk through the neighborhood, or when we’re buying groceries, or visiting a park, or on our way to or from seeing our children and grandchildren. It’s a strange bit of knowledge to […]
William Michaelian 