All articles filed in Reflection

Any time I get an e-mail that says “Chuck Miller – personal,” I automatically associate it with someone trying to either sell me something or to try to swindle me out of something.  You know, Nigerian princes and the like. This time, it was different.  And it brought back memories that I had hoped were…

I have absolutely no idea why people delight in asking me these types of questions. Let’s start with the basics and the history. I was born into, for all that it means, a family with two religions.  My father and his side of the family were Jewish (Conservative Jew, to be more precise); my mother…

So yesterday I found out that a photo contest I entered last year – the Soho Photo “Krappy Kamera” competition – came through with none of my pictures getting accepted into the show. I mean, it shouldn’t bother me.  I’ve battled through things like the Altamont Curse in my photographic journey.  I’ve challenged what I…

Sunday morning.  I’m in Windsor, Ontario.  I have a long drive home.  At least a good 9 1/2 hours, if I don’t stop for eats or fuel.  And I’ll need to stop for eats and fuel. It’s chilly and bleak along the 401, Ontario’s long provincial highway.  There’s a few gas stations here and there,…

It’s astounding how some things will remind you of other things.  Just a flash, an instantaneous moment in time, can make you recall something that you had buried deep in your mental vault, so deep that you hoped it would never resurface. And that’s what happened to me the other day. It’s last Thursday, and…

I’m looking up at the sky.  How many stars can I see in the night?  Dozens?  Hundreds?  A thousand upon a thousand? And if every star in the sky were the dim tears of an angel’s cries… the thought that another young soul would lose their only chance to live a full and complete life,…

I spent the weekend watching Erin Davies’ second documentary about her rainbow-colored Volkswagen, the Fagbug.  You know the story by now – someone spraypainted her Volkswagen with homophobic graffiti, and she decided to take those hateful comments and turn them into a message of tolerance and acceptance. Her first documentary about the car, Fagbug, did…

Every year, I’ve associated this charitable tradition – delivering turkey dinners on Thanksgiving Day for those in the Capital District who need them – as one of the most important and charitable functions I can undertake each year. And as much as I feel good about this holiday every year… Sometimes I get the feeling…