I was born during the last few months of the papacy of John XXIII. By the time I understood what a pope was and what he meant to the Catholic Church, that leader was Paul VI. After Paul VI passed in 1978, we had Pope John Paul I and then Pope John Paul II (the…
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“Sweet Purge” – a digital short about the crisis of eating disorders
About a dozen years ago, I worked with Tabatha Beshears on the Bottle Service webseries. But while Bottle Service never saw the light of day … Tabatha went on to create some other videos and media projects. Including this extremely important digital short called “Sweet Purge.” And I will preface this with a trigger warning…
Read MoreAllen’s Day is coming on February 20
55 years ago, on February 20, 1970, my 3-year-old baby brother Allen Miller was critically injured in a single car accident. He would pass away six months later. His death affected me in so many ways. At the time, my six-year-old brain couldn’t understand or rationalize the finality of death. Even today, I’m still struggling…
Read MoreLandmines
I’ve stepped on many figurative landmines in my life. Sometimes I know where the landmines are and I try to avoid them, but you can’t avoid every landmine. Sometimes you think you’ve stepped in a safe area, only to discover that you’ve placed your foot on an unmarked landmine and BOOM. And in that BOOM,…
Read MoreVale Alan Mansfield
The Facebook post hit me like a punch in the kidney. I’m reposting it here verbatim. From the Sharon O’Neill Facebook fan page. “Kia ora everyone, Yesterday morning I lost the love of my life, Alan. His daughter Lauren and I were with him and he passed comfortably and peacefully. Alan battled for three years…
Read MoreNine Hundred Eleven Words: a Personal Remembrance of September 11, 2001
NOTE: The following post was originally published on September 11, 2009, and was repeated on September 11, 2011. It is repeated today for obvious reasons. The day started out horribly. Two days beforehand, my wife’s grandfather, Samuel Ginsburg, passed away after a long and valiant battle against Alzheimer’s Disease. That day, we were going to…
Read MoreThose “thoughts and prayers” finally worked, didn’t they?
Yesterday. Winder, Georgia. Another city. Another town. Another school. Another Columbine. Another Stoneman Douglas High. Another Robb Elementary. Another and another and another. In Washington, D.C., a Republican Congressman spent the night in his Congressional office. He got down on his knees and prayed. I can imagine what he said when he heard about the…
Read MoreA second dose of survivor’s guilt.
This is the 54th anniversary of a tragic moment in my life. On February 20, 1970, a horrific car accident gravely injured my brother Allen Miller, who would pass away six months later from his injuries. He was only three years old when the car crash took place. At the time, I was attending first…
Read MoreMel-O-Toons: Cheap cartoons for weekday enjoyment
Follow along with me on this. In my childhood years, there was a simple plan on who would take care of me. During the school year, I would stay with my mother and stepfather in whatever double-deep, double-wide trailer park they were located. And as soon as the school year ended, my Grandma Betty and my great-grandmother…
Read MoreHe entered my room, and I couldn’t move my body.
This happened two weeks ago. And even today, I’m still running it through my mind, trying to figure out what happened. Background. The Town and Village of Green Island suffered a major power outage, which lasted all the way into night time. And rather than stay in my apartment in the dark, I called the Red Roof…
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Chuck The Writer 
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