Category Archives: Just Thinking

There’s a vast middle ground between brand-new and broken, between useful and useless. If we allow ourselves to reject the notion that new equals better, we open up a world of possibilities in every facet of our lives.  There is wonderful … Continue reading →

Maybe I should have held my tongue (or put my fingers back in their cases, as it were), but it struck a nerve with me.  So I responded to the email, which was the following message that was forwarded to me by … Continue reading →

As I sit and ponder whether my life, or any human life, fits on this planet, it occurs to me that I’ve been pondering the wrong question. It’s not about meaning, it’s about acknowledging that there is only one clear way … Continue reading →

Brutally cold nights; hot, arid days; water a necessity that is simply unavailable. I hope it’s just a fantasy that will never come to pass.

March 8, 2009 was the day I acknowledged I would never be in a position to achieve my lifelong dream of having a “place in the country.” For as long as I can remember, I’ve wished I had a few … Continue reading →

The hardest advice to take is to reveal yourself, the real you. Let the blemishes rise to the surface. Expose the cracked and broken edges. Stop hiding the curled and misshapen pieces of your personality. But then, who will love you? … Continue reading →

Here are a few photos from our hike today at Petit Jean State Park. Mi esposa bonita y mi cuñadaa hermosa and I did a bit of wandering around.  Only about 2 miles in total, I’d guess, but it was … Continue reading →

There’s a restaurant in Dallas—actually in the city limits of Plano, I think—with an odd characteristic.  I think it’s the ceiling that allows conversations at each of two specific tables across the room from one another to be heard at the other … Continue reading →

I find something about prisms vaguely unsettling. Perhaps it’s the fact that they look so simply elegant, yet they so completely alter reality. Let me think on that. Recently, I read that the speed of light changes when it moves from one … Continue reading →

This morning’s tasks include a visit to the pottery studio to carve bases into pots I threw two days ago. I suspect all six pots will be too wet, still, to handle, so I’ll have to put them in front … Continue reading →

There is a fine line, I think, between acceptable social constraints on behavior and intolerable suppression.  Constraints on behavior should be based on some generally agreed moral code (a topic I’ve pondered here and here and here recently). It is no … Continue reading →

The only infallible safety net is the one we build beneath our emotions, the one that never fails to catch us on the way down, down, down as we leap from the precipice toward the jagged rocks below. Yes, I know. … Continue reading →

I woke up to pee at 3:30.  I should have relieved myself and gone back to bed, but I decided to have a cup of coffee, instead.  Madness.  That’s no way to ensure a good night’s sleep.  I may yet … Continue reading →

During a long and satisfying walk yesterday afternoon (my wife and my sister-in-law and I did some pretty damn impressive walking, about 3 miles worth up and down some STEEP hills), I got a notification that I had received an … Continue reading →

Look in a mirror and you’ll see a reflection.  Look into the eyes in that reflection and you’ll see eyes that saw everything you’ve ever seen.  Every smile, every scowl, every spot on the pavement, every bird in flight.  Everything. … Continue reading →

Today was to have been a normal Tuesday, starting with breakfast at Debra’s diner with the woodworkers, followed by a few hours of making sawdust. But map dot fingerprint dystrophy (a condition in which the surface of the eye is dry … Continue reading →

Sometimes I don’t want to write.  I don’t want to read.  I don’t want to watch television or movies.  I just want to converse.  I want to talk about things on my mind, things on another person’s mind.  But the … Continue reading →

I sometimes wonder why people who are not open about their emotions keep them private.  Is it simply because they are private people? Or is it because they are afraid of what others would think if they shared how they feel?  Or were … Continue reading →

Scars need not be ugly reminders of painful experiences.  Scars also are badges of honorable battles fought and wars won.

I have a French woman-friend who I’ve never met face-to-face, only via Facebook and a few emails and texts.  She invited me (and my wife) to her home for dinner whenever we get to California.  She is a lawyer, a writer, … Continue reading →

Tension builds, tighter and tighter, like an emotional pressure cooker at risk of catastrophic release. Then, suddenly (or slowly) without warning, the pressure is gone. No explosive concussion, no sparks, no flames. Not even vapor. It’s as if I’m watching … Continue reading →