Happiness is an end to which many roads lead. From the air it seems like New York’s skyscrapers reach towards you, each a unique, wizened individual with stoic stories to share. The mirror of The Hudson is pretending to be a sunset—saturated rose hues that rise to the occasion as if they knew the wringing…
Forward from Bushwick Poetry, available from Amazon.com I know it was late because when I went inside to use the bathroom the last act of the night at The Goodbye Blue Monday was packing up their instruments. I invited the musicians to come out back and they joined our circle of patio chair. Half of us…
I return to Antigua to recharge, remember, rediscover, and to discover. When you leave, a part of you, a real presence remains. A tree seen from distant angles of perspective is my metaphor for my life past and present in Antigua, Guatemala. When I first moved to Antigua, Guatemala in 2008, my view from my…
United Airlines‘ on-hold music is inspiring. Melodic notes dip, then soar. It makes you want to, well, fly all over the world, see the pyramids, and experience the splendor that life has to offer. I’ve spent a lot of time this last year listening to that music, because United has spent much of 2013 screwing…
The following is an inscription written on the inside cover a book titled “Once An Addict” that was traded to Dyslexia Books in Antigua, Guatemala. The owner, Bill McGowan, only noticed it after the customer had left: I found this book ½ read on top of the fridge in my son’s house. Sadly, he accidentally…
There comes a point in the relationship of a gaggle of roommates when everyone has each other more or less figured out, so the whole gang can stop getting to know each other and just hang out and enjoy each other’s company. (Obvious exception: those explosives pairings where more acquaintance prompts additional murderous musings [ have…
It’s a bit hypocritical of me to write tonight about the recklessness of others. Should I pretend that I did not just return from participating in a bit of stupidity myself? Yes. The person to blame is the sun. The mother of all life on Earth was in a big hurry to set today. I…
You don’t think about these things until they happen, and having just experienced it, I realize that being holed up in a Guatemalan village eatery while wild rain runs river-ish in the street is greatly enhanced when a mariachi band is holed up in the same joint. Reflecting on it, I would like to change…
Yesterday I saw on my Facebook feed some downtrodden posts from travel bloggers about a fellow blogger who had taken her life. I clicked through to the link leading to her page and saw that she had done the deed on her birthday. I visited her blog and read her last post, which was about…
I have a mysterious problem with my pants that makes very little sense to me or anyone I question. Other people’s pants seem to degrade in various ways. Holes in the knee, frayed ends, a broken zipper—these are the usual symptoms that takes people’s pants out of commission. During my question of people I discovered…
