Author Archives: John Swinburn

El alacrán.  Scorpion. Escorpión.  A terrestrial arachnid with pincers similar to those of a lobster. The creature has a painful and poisonous sting, delivered from the end of a jointed tail. The beast can hold its tail, curved, over its back. … Continue reading →

If we forced ourselves to look three or four generations beyond today—maybe just one or two—would we make the same mistakes we’re making today? Would we correct our errors to the extent possible, preparing the world to be safer and … Continue reading →

The utter impossibility of knowing even an infinitesimal fraction of everything there is to know is the allure of the universe. The possibility that somewhere, well beyond the limits of our reach and our imaginations, the ultimate answer to everything … Continue reading →

Year after year after year, the public watches helplessly as Congress grows more and more fractious, unwilling to meet in the middle to achieve true consensus. We watch in anguish as the country’s gears grind slowly to a halt, the … Continue reading →

Some mornings beg for words to describe them. Others beg to be left alone in silence. The mornings may possess all the same characteristics; they may look identical in the eyes of an uninvolved observer. But to the person deeply … Continue reading →

In recognition of what would have been my mother’s 113th birthday, I post this image of her favorite flower—the “Yellow Rose of Texas.” She was 45 when I was born. Giving birth at that age was virtually unheard of nearly … Continue reading →

Something has happened to us. Whether we have been exposed to COVID-19 or not, we’ve been exposed to its psychological fallout. Our minds have been irrevocably altered by a combination of fear, denial, bravado, and stunned disbelief. During the early … Continue reading →

I’m nostalgic for a future that will never be. ~ Rommel Wood, producer, Ask Me Another ~ Rommel Wood’s comment about what he’ll miss about the radio game show he produced echoes some of my emotions about the show, though … Continue reading →

Reveal too much and you expose the fact that you’re a bore. Reveal too little and you fail to spur even a shred of excitement in others about yourself. Yet the amount to reveal that’s “just right” is incalculable; it’s … Continue reading →

Once again, my plans were slightly derailed yesterday. Instead of getting two CT scans, I waited patiently to be called back for the procedures, only to be told the machinery malfunctioned. The scans are now scheduled for a week later. … Continue reading →

My friend, Deanna, left a comment on yesterday’s post that triggered recollections of many, many of my previous posts. Those posts reflect a theme I’ve lived with for my entire life, I think. And I suspect it’s a theme woven … Continue reading →

Before I memorialize the unpleasantness of yesterday, I’ll wax philosophical about the future. The future does not simply happen. It arises from what came before it. The future emerges from what we did yesterday, what we do today, and the … Continue reading →

Once upon a time, when I was younger, better-looking, and smarter, I spent three semesters (give or take) learning to make questionably attractive or utilitarian “objets d’art” from clay and to throw pottery. “Learning” is a misnomer, as is “art.”  … Continue reading →

Yesterday, I dozed—off and on—instead of accomplishing much of value. While I had plenty of sleep the night before, I felt mentally exhausted. Mental exhaustion sometimes is inexplicable to me; I have no idea what brings it on. Perhaps the … Continue reading →

I watch online news video as people morph into the emotional equivalent of dried leather; tough, hard, inflexible, uncaring, bitter, cold-blooded, and callously inhumane. These people occupy philosophical space on the far ends of both sides of neutral—and every inch … Continue reading →

My to-do list has grown since we left for Fayetteville, Arkansas last Monday, our intermediate stop between Hot Springs Village, Arkansas and Fairfield, Iowa. Perhaps the most pressing of the items on the list came as the result of a … Continue reading →

We drove today from Columbia, Missouri to Hot Springs Village, stopping for lunch in Branson. Missouri. It was my first trip to Branson and if I am lucky I will not need to stop there again. Though the visit was … Continue reading →

As intriguing as Fairfield, Iowa is, our experience there offered evidence that even fields of wild flowers can be degraded by noxious weeds. Confederate flags hanging in windows, Trump flags spilling out of yards littered with trash, and clear lines … Continue reading →

I will post again, eventually. After my mind clears and I come to grips with the scrapes on the side of my car and I understand how a cool little town can be home to gods and devils, angels and … Continue reading →

Oh, I must have been tired when I posted yesterday. At least twice I referred to Fairview instead of Fairfield. And now that I am using my phone to post, instead of my horrid little uncooperative laptop computer, the errors … Continue reading →

The plan was to arrive early Monday afternoon in Fayetteville, after a leisurely drive from Hot Springs Village. A very rough, almost sleepless Sunday night, though, argued against both an early Monday departure and a straight-through drive to Fayetteville. So, … Continue reading →

I wrote the first iteration of this poem, Independent Thought, about two years ago. My flagging memory makes it impossible for me to know exactly what prompted me to write it, but I could hazard one hundred guesses and they … Continue reading →

No matter how hard a person works or how much effort he puts forth in setting the course for his life, circumstances over which he has no control direct the course of his time on Earth in many ways. It … Continue reading →

I’ve been hungry ever since I awoke, just before 5:00, this morning. Not just a bit peckish, mind you, but ravenously hungry. My hunger is the sort of sensation one might expect after being kidnapped and held without food—in a … Continue reading →

When we’re too free with information about ourselves, we risk sabotaging what little magnetism our personalities may possess.  We become open books whose pages hold little allure. I equate the experience to the once-common practice of reading the newspaper. That … Continue reading →