Author Archives: John Swinburn

About John Swinburn

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

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

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 →

Posted in Death | 1 Comment

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Murky Morning

Posted on November 29, 2018 by John Swinburn

As I look out my window this morning, the landscape seems to have been painted with a thick brush, heavily charged with grey and brown and ochre pigments. My eyes search for familiar shapes amidst the abstractions of branches and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The First Recovery Begins

Posted on November 28, 2018 by John Swinburn

I am out of the hospital. Apparently, though, the hospital adventure was just the start of a series of experiences designed either as lessons, to make me a better person, or as punishments in response to the kind of person … Continue reading →

Posted in Cancer, Health | 6 Comments

Pain-Based Design Competition.

Posted on November 25, 2018 by John Swinburn

The first few days after surgery were easily tolerable. The epidural and other pain meds made to easy to believe all was well. Well, the pain was masked. The agony was replaced by strange hallucinations. I spoke to Santa Clause … Continue reading →

Posted in Cancer, Health | 2 Comments

From a Small Screen in the Hospital

Posted on November 22, 2018 by John Swinburn

This post will be short, but happy. Today is Thanksgiving Day and I am in the hospital, short one lobe of my right lung. I am typing this with  one finger on my Samsung smart phone and happy to be doing … Continue reading →

Posted in Cancer, Health, Thanksgiving | 6 Comments

The Day Before Surgery

Posted on November 18, 2018 by John Swinburn

I awoke in the middle of the night and wrote the post below. Rather than post it right away, I decided to wait and see whether I’d feel differently after the remainder of a night’s sleep, assuming I could get … Continue reading →

Posted in Cancer, Health, Thanksgiving | 8 Comments

Clare’s Accent Made Me Hungry for a Visit to South Africa

Posted on November 18, 2018 by John Swinburn

When I heard Clare’s accent on the phone the other day, my mind immediately leapt toward South African food. If I discover Clare is from Angola or Ghana or, god forbid, Ecuador or Romania, I will be deeply embarrassed. Until … Continue reading →

Posted in Food | 2 Comments

Closer to the Cut

Posted on November 17, 2018 by John Swinburn

Yesterday, two calls from the hospital in Little Rock emphasized that this lung cancer surgery thing is really going to happen. First, a call from someone representing the anaesthesia team called to ask a lot of questions about my medical history, … Continue reading →

Posted in Cancer, Health, Thanksgiving | 3 Comments

Dreamscapes and Their Kin

Posted on November 16, 2018 by John Swinburn

Strange dreams last night. I was in a  Japanese shipyard, where ships were being launched from an enormous automated contraption that suspended huge cargo ships along a track perpendicular to the waterfront. At the  very end of the track, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Okra & Tomatoes

Posted on November 15, 2018 by John Swinburn

My “memories” of okra &  tomatoes from my childhood may or may not be actual memories. Instead, they may be artificial recollections created from conversations with family members about foods my mother cooked when I was a child. I think … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdist Fantasy | 1 Comment

A Word Dies When Spoken for the Last Time

Posted on November 13, 2018 by John Swinburn

For some odd reason beyond my comprehension, the word “spill” inhabits a place in my brain that causes it to make regular appearances in my writing. Eighty-five of my 2,833 posts, around three percent, include the word. Compare that to … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing | Leave a comment

The Fundamental Goodness of Humankind

Posted on November 13, 2018 by John Swinburn

It didn’t take long yesterday for the friendship and generosity within the “tribe” to which I attach myself to spill over into the wider world. I wrote that I had promised someone I would give him a ride to and … Continue reading →

Posted in Compassion, Empathy | Leave a comment

Fictional Writing

Posted on November 12, 2018 by John Swinburn

Wherein the writer attempts, unsuccessfully, to return to writing fiction vignettes, producing swill and incoherent drivel instead. Coleman Daniel Sprague was the first person convicted under the new thought-crime statutes. The charges against him were extensive. The first count with … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Writing | Leave a comment

Don’t Make Promises You Can’t Keep

Posted on November 12, 2018 by John Swinburn

Several weeks ago, I assured someone I would be happy to take him to doctor visits and other medical appointments when he needed me to do it. Last evening, I received an email from him, asking me to help him … Continue reading →

Posted in Compassion, Empathy | Leave a comment

The Gravity of Justice

Posted on November 11, 2018 by John Swinburn

The way I got there is too convoluted to tell. Suffice it to say I made my way to a blog post that described the writer’s journey of being selected as a juror and then, just as the trial was … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice | Leave a comment

That Miserable Thought

Posted on November 11, 2018 by John Swinburn

I euthanized that miserable thought, that idea that reeked of the stench of rancid self-indulgence. I ran a spear through its heart and I severed its head. After a day, I threw the rotting corpse of that thought into a … Continue reading →

Posted in Writing | 2 Comments