Author Archives: John Swinburn

Some days are gentler than others, the usually hard corners worn just soft enough to make them malleable.  Those are the days when, after hours of dappled brightness, night comes on slowly, as if the light in the sky were draining away … Continue reading →

If I could go back to my twentieth birthday, I would have a full-frontal photo(fully clothed) of me taken, along with a full-body profile.  Then, each year on the same day, I would repeat the process.  The photos would be … Continue reading →

If your intended destination is Halifax, Nova Scotia, boarding a Laredo-bound bus in San Antonio is likely to put you on a deeply unpleasant and circuitous route. Check your intent, then check your ticket.

It is so easy to get discouraged by the behavior of dullards, witless thugs whose brains are incapable of anything but egotism and idiocy.  But I won’t let the cretins who disrupted the 24th Annual Pumpkin Festival in Keene, New Hampshire or the jerks … Continue reading →

An interesting and informative exercise involves describing oneself from the perspective of someone else who’s just met you.  The description includes both one’s physical and personality attributes and characteristics.  There will be more on this later.  For now, this is … Continue reading →

There is a poet inside us, scratching and clawing to escape the shell—the artificial prison we have constructed inside our minds—we created to keep the beast constrained within. Let it out, else be content to see what we missed by viewing life from … Continue reading →

Poisons do not necessarily have physical properties.  They may be invisible, have no taste, and exist entirely in the mind of their user.  Their strength lies not in the user’s ability to deploy them, but in the victim’s willingness to let them … Continue reading →

If you allow an avocado to be an avocado, it will taste better than if you try to transform it into an apple.

Texture. Food has it. Bed sheets have it. The pavement on the road has it. My skin has it. I wondered whether water has texture. Based on my understanding of the term, and from my perspective, it seems that the surface … Continue reading →

The fact that our lives are subatomic in duration and scope in comparison to geologic time is immaterial.  Every life we touch during our short time on this planet is as important in our abbreviated time scale as is the creation … Continue reading →

This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. ~Advice given by Polonius to Laertes in ‘Hamlet’ William Shakespeare In the context … Continue reading →

Go far away from city lights and look at the dark sky on a clear night.   If you are not overwhelmed by it, you are not thinking deeply enough.  Try again.  And again.  And again. Eventually, the scale of the … Continue reading →

In my experience, kind and generous neighbors are rare.  I hate revealing that, but I think it’s true.  But when neighbors are kind and generous, they are the sort of rare neighbors who deserve accolades, appreciation, and acceptance. We had … Continue reading →