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Sitting at my desk, the countryside looks the same outside my window. Gently rolling hills. Trees showing the first signs of spring. Greenery replacing barren tree limbs. Vibrant color where there was none.
Reading at my desk, the country is unrecognizable. Wildly roiling voices. News stories reporting signs of liberty ending. Greed now the American Dream. Darkness where colors once complemented each other.
Sensing the moment is more than just fleeting. Hubris attacking humility, kindness ridiculed as weakness. Rule of…..
I’ve been asked to imagine five objects from my childhood bedroom and write about one. Five easily come to mind with one standing out. My black and white portable TV, positioned across the room next to my desk. Rabbit ears and all. It was quite a luxury back then.
One moment sticks out clearly. The night of April 17, 1970, four days after my 13th birthday, the eve of manhood. Tomorrow I would be having my bar mitzvah. However, there…..
I’ve been asked to write about one experience that I wanted to pursue that never happened. Would I want to do it now if I could?
I used to love running, the feeling of abandon, the wind at my back and of course in my face. I ran competitively in high school and the first semester of college. The college guys were a lot better than the high school crowd. We did “leisurely” 10 mile runs every Sunday. I eventually…..
I used to work as a consultant on computer systems projects for government agencies. We organized ourselves into teams, consultants and government team members working side by side. All reporting to an overall project manager who sat in the “big chair.” The buck stopped there. This unfortunate soul reported to the project partner who had overall financial responsibility, the “money man.”
I filled all these roles throughout my career, always knowing what was expected. In my early years I knew…..
I’m asked to identify two or three shapes to frame my objective. I have one.
I am a labyrinth, starting life in the center, wrenched outside at the age of seven. My life upended by a mystical experience, innocence lost. Fifty years stumbling back to center. Searching for meaning. Afraid.
And then unafraid. Using a labyrinth to organize words uncovered in forty-day journeys, codified in journals, looking for patterns. Entering the experience, meditating, demystifying Nothingness. Writing my story.
So what…..
When I think of autumn, my mind wanders back to high school cross country days. Entering a private school in Hillside as a high school freshman, I was out of my element. Only a few miles away from my Elizabeth junior high, it seemed like another world. Everybody had to participate in a fall team sport, either soccer, football or cross country. I was too small for football, never played soccer but knew how to run. So I went out…..
Today’s prompt is a beautiful picture of a new snowfall gracing a city park, an old stately building barely visible in a white out, the park pathway leading into it. There’s one person in the picture behind his car, considering what comes next. The snow is pristine.
Let’s consider the fallout, city workers clearing the streets with snowplows, sidewalks yielding to snowblowers and shovels. Preparing for normalcy.
My experience with snow is colored by the gray of the clearing, sometimes…..
Mid-day Sunday, time for our FaceTime with Ali and Matilda. They call us from their living room in Paris. We are being broadcast on the big screen TV, up front and personal. Sam is off stage, technical support available as needed. We’re pretty big, Ali has told us. Matilda is up front and center, now almost 10 months of age, nestled in Ali’s lap. A big smile appears on her face, her left arm waving, then her right arm following. …..
I’m instructed to start writing here. Oh, and write about debacle. That’s it
Well, let’s see, I could write about the election, but I’m already tired of that.
I could write about the weather, there’s not much of a debacle there, but we are having a drought. We have well water, so without more rain, we would run out of water, the pipes could freeze, I could work myself into a frenzy of worry. That would be a debacle.
I…..
I can’t hear very well. It’s probably getting a little worse, it will never get better.
I can’t see very well. It’s been a long time, remembering asking Penny if the blackboard was blurry in Accounting class. I got glasses and have been wearing them ever since.
I don’t have hearing aids, they’re for old people. I may be older but I’m not old.
I really can’t hear a lot of words when I watch movies. I’ve heard that it’s…..
