Author Archives: John Swinburn

It was either the urgent need to pee or the cat’s footsteps on my face that woke me. Regardless of which intrusion on my slumber was responsible, I was rousted at roughly 5:00 this morning. I knew yesterday that this … Continue reading →

Hiding emotions is a practice almost all people employ. The reasons for hiding them are as varied as the emotions being hidden. Sometimes, people attempt to hide them from themselves. Secret emotions may be hidden to avoid hurting someone else: … Continue reading →

Only time will tell whether the relationship will endure. Time will reveal the existence (or absence) of patience. Time will reveal the tolerance (or lack thereof) for fine fibers of fur on every exposed surface. Time will reveal whether my … Continue reading →

Millions of Americans defend their decisions to minimize their tax obligations, saying they are simply taking advantage of existing, unfair loopholes in tax laws. “I may disagree with the law, but as long as it lets me legally reduce my … Continue reading →

When I awoke this morning, a question—What is peace?—was on my mind. Perhaps the question arose from a dream, though I do not recall the context of a dream in which that might have been a burning question. Regardless, as … Continue reading →

Today is the 74th day in the Roman calendar, notable as the Roman deadline for settling debts and the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar. The Ides, in the Roman calendar, was one of three fixed points (the other … Continue reading →

For 20 of the last 36 years, Iceland has had a woman serving as either president or prime minister. After the September 2021 Icelandic election, 30 of the 63 members of parliament (48 percent) were female.  Not only do women … Continue reading →

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) says this (among other things), about physiological changes associated with emotion: The most obvious signs of emotional arousal involve changes in the activity of the visceral motor (autonomic) system. Thus, increases or decreases in heart … Continue reading →

As I skimmed the news this morning, one story affected my emotions more than any other. More than news about the obscenely high cost of housing in Hong Kong—and the financial distance between the richest and the poorest in that … Continue reading →

Sleep visited me last night, but only during brief encounters. I waited for what seemed like hours before I fell asleep, only to awaken minutes after beginning to doze. Each subsequent course of sleep and waking followed a similar short … Continue reading →

It’s a long title. And it may make no sense to anyone but me. And, possibly, not even to me. Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do. ~ Voltaire ~ There is nothing special about … Continue reading →

Words; as tender as the fur of a newborn kitten. Or as harsh as a cudgel crafted from the dried carcass of an elderly rhinoceros. From softness to coarseness, a spectrum of textures whose offerings range from comfort to cruelty. … Continue reading →

I do not appreciate being teased. Not in the least. In fact, if truth be known, I loathe being teased. When teased, I transform from a committed pacifist to a mercenary soldier with a taste for blood. When Spring first … Continue reading →

I am not brilliant; my intellect is insufficient to produce remarkable solutions to the hauntingly complex problems that have plagued humankind for millennia. But I think my intelligence is adequate for learning new information at relatively high speed. I do … Continue reading →

After watching the second of only two seasons of Dehli Crime, I am deeply disappointed that a third season is unavailable (and, perhaps, has not been nor will be produced). The show portrays the Dehli police force as comprising mostly … Continue reading →

Pride is a response to oppression—not the only response, necessarily, but one response. And it is a powerful reaction, one that can overwhelm almost all the other replies to attempts to smother one’s sense of identify. I am not the … Continue reading →

My Unsung Hero from Hidden Brain strikes me as an odd label for a radio program, but every time I hear an episode of the National Public Radio (NPR) show, my judgment of the title disappears. In its place, I … Continue reading →

Evidence of a new season, masked by cold recollections and icy memories, struggles to assert itself. Early morning brightness might reveal clues about what is to come, but grey, wet skies hide the sun. Yellow daffodils scream their stories as … Continue reading →

As far as I know, last night’s threats of tornadoes in our immediate vicinity did not pan out. The forest surrounding the house remains standing. To my knowledge, the roof above my head in intact. While carnage and devastation may … Continue reading →

Self-control can protect one from danger or embarrassment or various other forms of unpleasantness. I have to exercise self-control on an ongoing basis, for those very reasons. But harnessing one’s immediate desires can prevent a person from experiencing delight, as … Continue reading →

We know nothing. We hold beliefs. We harbor suspicions. We think we know. But we do not know. We simply convince ourselves of the certainty of certain facts. We do that because, otherwise, we would live in a state of … Continue reading →

The internet ostensibly gives committed seekers of the “truth” ways to find it. Increasingly, though, those searchers discover “truth” is a painstakingly re-created replica of the Mona Lisa. These seekers do not find truth, but a counterfeit commissioned by “incorruptible … Continue reading →

Why is it, I wonder, that barren-leafed, fog-enshrouded forests seem simultaneously menacing and inviting? Why does being surrounded by a forest of hazy, blurry, naked trees—their trunks erect and tall—give me a sense that the indistinct distance is hiding both … Continue reading →

An inadvertent motion by an itchy “trigger” finger sent a raw, rough, utterly unfinished draft of the first few paragraphs of a prospective piece of short fiction onto the internet last night. Mi novia questioned why I used my WordPress … Continue reading →

Whether the memory originated from a personal experience or from a story I read or heard about, it touched a nerve that remains raw more than more than thirty years later. Details of the memory have blurred over time, but … Continue reading →