There is an unknown, unchangeable and invisible facet of a man that is - to him -  much like the back of his own head. He will never see it unless he is forced to look at it. Analogous to after getting a haircut, when the barber is seeking approval or possibly when he sees… Read full post »

my lover is hurting

Two hundred and thirty-nine miles off in the distance, I watched from behind the safety of my Xenoflex bubble, as my daughter stopped skipping to tie back her chestnut brown hair back with a little red ribbon. It was Valentine's Day I remembered, and she looked skyward for the little black… Read full post »

 Last year, I waited for it to pass. I held my breath and tried to live life to the full and not be terrified; to lose courage, to doubt my faith.

Last year, I was a kestrel.

 

The name kestrel, (from French crécerelle, derivative from crécelle/… Read full post »

Back in the seventies, when a two-tone brown polyester/acrylic wool scarf was fashionable, my doting sister knitted me one for Christmas. Diligently, she repeated the knit-one-pearl-one process, in all likelihood for a week or two longer than necessary for an eight or nine year old boy, but I… Read full post »

Even from the name, you can tell the Outer Banks is a lonely place in November. As with any beach, the persona changes dramatically when summer ends, but here? Here you find yourself traveling with a stranger though they may have been with you for the whole ride.… Read full post »

It’s so easy to contemplate today, to sit and feel what you feel and write a letter, a bit of advice, a reflection of the present time to the older you. Anyone can do it.

Not so with the inverse. Some would say it's impossible.

I say, hogwash.… Read full post »

It was in a field of wheat that I thought of water.  This field to be exact.

Because whenever I am within walking distance of a field of wheat, I stop to eat some of it. I do this to commune with my Lord, who… Read full post »

 _Pothead

Growing up in my hometown there were plenty of warnings, but somehow, my friends never made the connection. Kind of like that horror movie where you are screaming to the dumb people to get out of the house, but they can’t hear… Read full post »

There's a postcard that I received from my daughter when she was lucky enough to be studying in Lausanne. It features a gnarly, graying French cyclist smoking a pipe, as he pedals over the crest of a mountain pass. It reads: "Ou ne monterais-je pas disent tous les rois de la… Read full post »

The Road to Ogden

 
We were halfway into August and the kids were back in school
 
September in the distance, weak spark and low on fuel
 
I came so close to canceling, some plans that I had made,
 
But my brother had a Thunderbird, that he stopped by to trade.

 
There&rsquo… Read full post »

Recently, my wife and I went to dinner and an opera with an old friend, reconnecting with her and her fiance. Within five minutes of meeting him for the him for the first time, I asked him that timeless, taboo guy question.

 ^{http://commandopera.com/2012/02/14/adriana-at-t}… Read full post »

She was sick, sick unto death, on her hands and knees in the middle of floor. My senses were leaving me. Dirty faced children lined the tops of three sofas watching in anticipation, hoping the baby would be born. This was far more interesting than the cartoons and cereal/… Read full post »

It's a warm June evening in America and a gentle breeze stirs the leaves of the cherry tree in the backyard. He just planted it last year and it's already begun to bear fruit. When he planted it, he imagined this night as one of celebration, where the whole family would sample a sweet… Read full post »

One perfect, cool and overcast day in Millville, NJ, eight guys with completely different backgrounds in life, career and just about everything else, came together to ride Code.

To write code is to take a standard set of commands and assemble them into a larger collection which, (hopefully) will beco… Read full post »

Of all the fruits given us by God, none has inflicted more punishment on man than the simple grape. Perhaps the fruit Eve gave Adam, thus banishing them East of Eden, but we have no idea of it's true identity. Regardless, never has that sweet and noble orb been so exploited… Read full post »

There's a common scene in the modern day heist movie where the techno-thief reaches into his or her pocket and tosses a bit of baby powder into the air. Suddenly, the seemingly empty room is illuminated, crosshatched with laser beams of light just waiting to be broken, calling the dogs… Read full post »

In 1985, I nearly made the biggest mistake of my life. I ran away from my girlfriend, who is now my wife. I went back to my post-adolescent roots in Georgia and moved in with two former roommates, Doug and Steve.

They were both motorcycle men, Doug the mechanic, Steve the… Read full post »

I straddle two worlds, one with fixed boundaries and one with fluid. One world is often filled with noxious fumes- a byproduct of doing actual, measurable work in my garage. The other a cubicle or board room occasionally contaminated with fumes that are produced by myself and my colleagues.… Read full post »

^{Earth rise from the surface of the moon - Dec 22 1968 - Apollo 8}

It was Christmas 1980, Two years had passed since I left home to live on my own, I was twenty. I was still living in Mountain Park,a small lake town in the north suburbs… Read full post »

Many first time visitors to Colorado are surprised at the seagulls. I’m not sure if these were bad navigators who were blown off course, outcasts or perhaps a migrating flock who descended upon a landfill that was just too bountiful to leave. Whatever the reason, I spotted two of them this… Read full post »

A halcyon is a mythical bird—often identified as a kingfisher. During the winter solstice, it breeds in a floating nest at sea, where it charms the wind and waves into calm. The term originates from the Greek myth of Alcyone.

In modern terms, it can also mean to harken back… Read full post »

12/05/1980 – BOSTON, MA---Studying the rings of the ancient Bristlecone pine gives us a view of historical events that would otherwise remain a mystery, events known but to God. A close look at the rings of these and other witnesses of the ages can reveal things like fire, mega-droughts and som… Read full post »

^{John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was fatally shot while traveling with his wife Jacqueline, Texas governor John Connally, and the latter'}… Read full post »