One of my great pleasures is to write in total freedom, not caring in the least what anybody thinks. Today I’m remembering the best Christmas I ever had: December 25, 1989. I lived in Tokyo at the time, and I was faced with a choice. I don’t regret the outcome. Regret is an emotion not…
Adrift no longer. Without even knowing it, I arrived
December 17, 2023
I never knew what to do with my life. In very real ways, I never had a life. Some forms of trauma are impossible to “get over.” The closest I came to having a career was the ten years I spent as a music journalist in Los Angeles. It didn’t pay anything, but my parents…
More evidence that I’m doing what I was meant to do
November 22, 2023
Living for fifty-three years has been incredibly hard. In a lot of ways I never had a life, since my formative experiences robbed me of the ability to have relationships. Last night I had a dream in which God gave me a photo album of the life I should’ve had. I saw photos of myself…
Fear is your enemy
November 21, 2023
In the war against the Islamic State, the terrorists have been granted all their victories. These triumphs were not earned. President Obama sabotaged a status of forces agreement (SOFA) with Iraq so that he could bring home all our combat troops, and then the Iraqis decided to flee from the enemy, leaving behind massive amounts…
How do we deter the murderously violent?
November 8, 2023
Every day brings new knife attacks by Palestinians. And if you search the Internet, you can find the most horrifying videos and photos that depict actual death in war, on roads, in stores, and in homes. The images have lost their power to shock. However, there’s a very efficient way to show the murderously violent…
Denial isn’t one of my problems
November 6, 2023
I hurt my back a few days ago. Actually, I ruined my back in 1992, when I was working as a field representative for a document-retrieval service. More on that later. Though I have more problems than you can imagine, denial isn’t one of them. That’s an emergency-room wrist band. At 8:00 a.m. I drove…
I hate masks
October 31, 2023
Tonight in the US is Halloween, a very metaphorical celebration for me. The light on my front porch is off, signalling to those who wear masks that I’m not approachable. I don’t reward those who conceal who they really are. Actually, my mother, Tim, and I stopped handing out candy several years ago. Teenagers without…
Protect me from my friends
October 29, 2023
I can’t write a long post tonight because I’m on a new medication. It makes me extremely groggy. The effect should wear off in a couple of weeks. Therefore I’ll recycle an old post and add to it. This is about the notion of who or what we can depend on to protect us. Since…