Monthly Archives: December 2018

Easing into a New Perspective on the Last Day of a Hard Year

Posted on December 31, 2018 by John Swinburn

During 2018, I watched as most of my expressed wishes for the year (see below, beneath the separator line) perished in the suffocating smog of angry right-wing resurgence. Around mid-year, my broad, world-view perspective narrowed as a brother was hospitalized … Continue reading →

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Crawling Out from Under

Posted on December 30, 2018 by John Swinburn

Yesterday was a miserable day. I wasn’t able to sleep the night before, due both to simple discomfort and distractions and to pain. Yesterday, I tried to sleep during the day with little success. I couldn’t get warm, no matter … Continue reading →

Posted in Cancer, Health | 7 Comments

Christmas Gloom and Hopeful Wishes

Posted on December 25, 2018 by John Swinburn

It’s Christmas morning, 2018. Our plans for the day are simple: friends will come to our house at 10 to deliver a nice Christmas breakfast. Late this afternoon, we will visit other friends who have invited us over for a … Continue reading →

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Dreams into Dust

Posted on December 22, 2018 by John Swinburn

This morning, as I read about the popularity of the vada pav in Mumbai (Bombay), my mind returned to the place I’ve been advised by so many to avoid: a busy street corner or tiny strip center where I would … Continue reading →

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Gone Too Young

Posted on December 19, 2018 by John Swinburn

The nephew of a blogger I’ve never met, Ellie, died of an overdose several days ago. What I know of the blogger’s family I know only because she wrote about them extensively and shared copious pictures of them. Her exuberance … Continue reading →

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Hallucinations of Bangalore

Posted on December 19, 2018 by John Swinburn

I make periodic stops at a blog entitled Hallucinations, written by Shruthi Rao, a young woman who lives in Bangalore, a high-tech center in southern India. The subjects of her posts range as widely as mine, perhaps even wider. But … Continue reading →

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To Prove It’s Me

Posted on December 18, 2018 by John Swinburn

My blog, once a repository for creative ideas I wanted to save from the ravages of time, seems to have become a repository for experiences I would rather have avoided. Instead of letting my blog serve as the moderately willing … Continue reading →

Posted in Cancer, Health | 7 Comments

Hiatus in the Interest of Serenity

Posted on December 6, 2018 by John Swinburn

I’ve noticed the decline in the number and quality of my blog posts since my introduction to lung cancer. It’s obvious to me that the reason for the change isn’t the cancer, it’s my response to it. I’ve allowed myself … Continue reading →

Posted in Cancer, Health, Writing | 3 Comments

A Bump in the Road

Posted on December 5, 2018 by John Swinburn

I haven’t posted much of late about my experiences learning about and responding to cancer. The primary reason for the drop in output is the decline in my certainty about what I’m dealing with. The certainty…uncertainty…certainty…uncertainty cycles have been torturing my … Continue reading →

Posted in Cancer, Health | 4 Comments

Poisonous Wonder

Posted on December 2, 2018 by John Swinburn

In the absence of data, I can only guess. I am simply a surmiser, a theorist who hypothesizes and speculates, a man who deduces and presumes based on the logic of conjecture. Yet my inferences carry the nuclear weight of … Continue reading →

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Fragments

Posted on December 1, 2018 by John Swinburn

Evidence validates the fact that all the broken pieces fit together. It accomplishes nothing more, does it? But doesn’t it show, too, that fragments once meant more together than they do apart? A sphere clutches to all the answers until … Continue reading →

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