I submitted my first newspaper column (to the Cumberland Times) thirty-three years ago. I had just turned 40 and, as I recall it, the column was full of imagined forthcoming changes. It was one of those “smell the flowers along…
Read more
Aging is usually seen as a scourge of some kind — nothing good about it, except that the alternative is to die young. But then why does a wise poet like Shakespeare say that “ripeness is all”? And why does…
Read more
Howard grew up a mile from where I live on Evitts Creek. A spiritual adventurer/pioneer, he left the area for many years, forging alliances with several well known personas in the American Southwest and Mexico, including Don Juan Matus, the…
Read more
It’s hard to separate truth from fiction anytime, but 2000 years ago? It almost doesn’t matter. Now we are in legend territory, and legends are at best loosely connected to facts. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have a lot…
Read more
YOU CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF WHAT YOU DON’T REALLY WANT At the poker game last Saturday night, between hands I was explaining the nuances of my bad back, and Arthur said, “80 percent of the people have bad backs…
Read more
TIME TRAVEL AND THE NEW AGE I can have mystical thoughts like the next guy. “Mystical” must originate from “mist” — meaning something important is not clear to the five senses, or to the rational mind. Lately I’ve been…
Read more