Author Archives: John Swinburn

About John Swinburn

"Love not what you are but what you may become."― Miguel de Cervantes

Sincerely, J Swinburn

A few days ago, when I received my regular premium notice for my car insurance, I was surprised to see a significant increase. Though the figure was small in absolute dollars, it was enough of a bump to catch my … Continue reading

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I Stared at the Sun

Expectations of a week relatively free of doctor visits were dashed yesterday afternoon when I got a call from my oncologist’s office, informing me that I need to return for three more visits this week. I will return for two … Continue reading

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Transformation

For breakfast this morning, I ate a pomelo and a grapefruit mi novia bought a a few days ago. The pomelo, with its thick rind and its rather bland flavor was not especially good. But the small grapefruit (much smaller … Continue reading

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Another Time

Yesterday’s insight service at church consisted of a screening of a documentary film entitled, Join or Die. Based on the research that led to Robert Putnam’s book, Bowling Alone, the marketing tag line for the film is “A film about … Continue reading

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War. What is it Good For? Absolutely Nothing

Several of the clocks in the house either have been adjusted or adjusted themselves overnight, reacting to the admonition that most U.S. residents’ clocks “spring forward.” Daylight saving time (DST) has a long, convoluted history—one insufficiently interesting to me to … Continue reading

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For Me to Tell

People who speak a language other than their native tongue are to be admired. But yesterday, when I called the foreign bank (with a domestic US headquarters office) to attempt to renew a CD I originally bought online, my admiration … Continue reading

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Weary

I sit here, letting fluids and medications flow through the port in my chest. A vitamin B-12 shot in my upper arm was a new experience…I think. Too many stabs and jabs to remember. I have been weak and tired … Continue reading

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Mental Misdirection

On rare occasion, I feel a slight tightness in my chest. It always dissipates within a few hours, a day at most, but during the time I feel the pressure I worry that it could be something worth being concerned … Continue reading

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A Mid-Morning Pause

Another mostly sleepless night, when I would have expected to be made sufficiently tired by last Thursday’s chemotherapy to sleep soundly for hours and hours. Perhaps I will fall fast asleep during the day. I hope so. In the interim, … Continue reading

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Nothing is Trivial

My brother who lives in Dayton will be appalled to learn that I had white chicken chili (with cannellini beans) for dinner last night—and it was exceptionally good! A true believer in the singular authenticity of beef-only red Texas chili, … Continue reading

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May You Be…

One of the reasons I often do not feel confident or competent when developing fictional characters who are stereotypically masculine males is that their personalities do not reside in me. The only aspect of their personalities that may mirror components … Continue reading

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No.

I go in for another chemotherapy treatment today. Less than four hours from now. Every time I go in, I have new questions—or old questions I forgot to ask. Before I settled in to write this post, I typed eleven … Continue reading

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Competing Ideas

Unlike physical pain, emotional injuries are abstractions. They consist of interpretations of intellectual encounters. They express one’s understanding of experience through a unique filter. They are responses to circumstances—mental acrobatics driven by unseen forces. Though they arise from the imagination, … Continue reading

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Knots

Clearly, all of us have lost our minds. There is no question about it. We go about our days as if there is nothing wrong with electing drunk, rabid alligators to manage our country’s affairs. The solution, of course, is … Continue reading

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Quid Pro Quo

Gmail has about 1.5 billion users worldwide, according to Statistica. If a post on X (Twitter) had been proven to be legitimate (but, fortunately, the post was bogus), those users’ accounts would have disappeared with the closure of Gmail in … Continue reading

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Sleep and Such

My intentions this morning were smothered in sleep. I woke late, giving myself so little time to get ready for church that I opted to stay home and view the service online. But not long after waking and having coffee … Continue reading

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Uncertain

He would have turned 14 next month, but Flaco died before reaching that birthday. His last year of life was the only year he experienced freedom, courtesy of a vandal who shredded the wire mesh of his cage in the … Continue reading

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The Motion of Ideas

The last printed edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica was “the 2010 version of the 15th edition, which spans 32 volumes and 32,640 pages.” Though the resource continues now exclusively online, the cessation of the print version marked a significant acknowledgement … Continue reading

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Indeed Indeed

One’s personal freedoms are hard to measure, yet the scope of those freedoms correlate closely to the number of people in what I’ll call a person’s “sphere of experience.”  The correlation is a negative; the greater the number of people … Continue reading

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Personal Musings

Yesterday, the dermatological nurse I visited prescribed an antibiotic and a topical medication for the rash behind my right knee. Shortly after that visit, my pharmacy called to inform me that the deductible for the topical would be $387 and … Continue reading

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In the End, There’s Always Nudity

In yesterday’s post, I expressed my fiercely negative, deeply judgmental, extremely bigoted feelings about a woman I saw wearing a Trump sweatshirt. A while later, on Facebook, I came across a link to an article from a New York Times … Continue reading

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Half the Day

I watch the woman saunter by, led to an empty restaurant booth by a harried waiter. Three or four men, all wearing baseball caps, follow her. Knowing almost nothing about the woman—nor the men who accompany her—I immediately make a … Continue reading

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Clumsy Thinking

When a person refers to this blog as a diary, I am startled at the characterization, but I should not be surprised by it. It has become precisely that. This diary, though, is not a private record of my thoughts … Continue reading

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Song of Saturday

I read a New York Times online piece this morning. Entitled Jimmy Carter’s Long Goodbye, the article was classified as a piece on politics, but the writer’s focus was not on politics. Rather, it expressed what I sense is the … Continue reading

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Lessons

Rest last night has not diminished my fatigue this morning. I should be showering now, but my energy is at one of its low ebbs. If not for my appointment to have “labs” taken by the oncologist’s staff this morning, … Continue reading

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