My microlending boy
Last week around this time, I was in the back of a Volkswagon and sliding out of a misty Rosario, Argentina. The city’s huge monuments and cloud-soaked buildings escaped through the back window as...
Essays from an american mutt
Our new girl
We spent nearly three months walking around a quiet house. We spent three months with no reason to make sure we didn’t leave a box of crackers unattended. We spent three months without seeing...
September minutiae
September is set to end, near as I can tell, in about 13 hours. It’s been a been a heckuva month. I barely understand why I keep doing these monthly updates, except that I...
Dogs at large
The dogs were determined, six in a haphazard row, straight from Disney, a mix of colors, sizes, and uncertain breeds. They looked as though they owned the streets but had a higher power to...
Seasonal exchange
It’s somewhere near 90 degrees outside. A June haze hangs over the mountains, a reminder that a great part of the American south is still part of the American south. I’m in Greenville, South...
Sunrise
I’ve seen a lot of sunrises in the past three months. Some have been shame’s flashlight, burnt orange, Vegas disasters that made me curse myself and everything around. A few have been black, through-the-curtains...
Remember today…
…the thousands of people who died on 9-11-01 and every one of their family and friends who carry a burden most of us cannot understand… …the fear, one so powerful it rolled in waves...
Burn this, sinners
If you are a good person–as most people believe themselves to be–there are things you don’t do. This goes beyond the Ten Commandments and the relatively commonsense approach to going through your days honoring...
Milestone
Along the way to becoming a man, along the way to that first kiss, first car, first beer, first love (none of these in any particular order, I’m sure), and all the rest of...
Nine years of drivel
As I sat here and tried to decide what sort of drivel might fit on this page today, I realized I’ve been writing on Rapid Eye Reality for nine years now. It was around...
August minutiae
As part of my on-going series of “Stuff About Which You Don’t Care,” here’s the monthly report on the little things that kept me busy. Please return in September for…well, whatever happens that is...
We’re going nowhere
I heard a political speech this weekend. I transcribed the end of it from a recording. If you didn’t hear it, too, I’d suggest you take the time to read through this brief section....
Patience, young grasshopper
The past three weeks have been busier than most for me and it’s not going to slow down much for another six weeks or so. I’m remaining patient. In the meantime, I’m Mr. Mom...
Insurance fraud hail storm
On any given summer day in this fair suburban neighborhood, one could look out over the expanses of manicured fescue and Bermuda and find day laborers napping under giant sweetgums and oaks. They are...