Long-time readers of my blog will recall my original post about The Chestnut Prison. From July to November of 1978, because I could not live with my emotionally abusive and toxic parents – my mother and stepfather – I chose to move to Abington, Massachusetts, and live with my father and his wife (and his…
Read MoreAll articles filed in Reflection
The Flight Pins
Every year, around the first week of September, I look for the flight pins. They’re somewhere. But I can’t immediately find them. Eventually, by September 8th, I find them. Both safe. Both ready to wear. One pin is an old United Airlines souvenir “junior pilot” pin. The other is a gold-colored American Airlines “junior stewardess”…
Read More(25×2) + 7…
Hello, 57. There were times when I thought you and I wouldn’t meet. You know what looks good when paired with a 57? This does. You know what else looks good with a big 57 on it? This guy when he’s throwing a no-hitter. And you know what else looks good when it’s paired with…
Read MoreOne inch.
It’s 5:00 in the evening, and I’m on my way home from downtown. Day job is done. I leave the office building through the rear entrance, so that I can walk down to the parking garage and get my car. To leave the back of my building, I have to cross a very narrow street. …
Read MoreDonald Trump, this is your America
I’ve been self-isolated in my home for the past three months, avoiding a malevolent, unstoppable virus that can destroy my lungs in days. I watch on the news as our cities are being destroyed, while police and protestors fight each other with rocks and tear gas and rubber bullets and AR-15’s. I watch as 40…
Read MoreHana Kimura and the pandemic of cyberbullying
Maybe you saw professional wrestler Hana Kimura in one of the Japanese puroresu shows in the past couple of years. Perhaps you saw her in the recent Ring of Honor title tournament. Or watched her in her many matches with the Stardom promotion. How good was she? Check out this move. It hurts just LOOKING…
Read MoreI don’t care if it’s May 15, June 6 or the 12th of Never…
In New York, we are currently on a “Pause.” That means non-essential businesses must have their employees work from home, and that some services and luxuries must remain closed – all to stop the spread of COVID-19b from person to person. The most recent deadline, as set via executive order from Governor Andrew Cuomo, was…
Read MoreSo there’s supposed to be an April Fool’s Day post here…
I had an April Fool’s Day post scheduled for today. I really did. I worked on it for weeks. And to be honest, it was a masterpiece. Yesterday … I shelved it. Maybe I’ll re-run it in 2021, maybe I’ll delete it from my incomplete blog pile. COVID-19 has claimed another bastion of normalcy. Background. …
Read MoreAn empty glass full of water
There is the old Zen koan about a drinking glass that contains half of its internal volume in water. Is the glass half-empty? Is it half-full? Sometimes, there are days when that glass could be filled to overflowing, and I’d still swear it was empty. And this is something that, even at 56 years of…
Read More50
Ten years ago, I wrote a blog post about a car accident that critically injured my baby brother Allen. I wrote about the anger and confusion my six-year-old mind went through on that day. It’s been fifty years since that horrifying car accident. And in the cold of a February afternoon, it still haunts me.…
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