137 Extracted Words – The Tease

May 2022

 

 

I write short fiction, flash fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from an essay in progress.

This week marked the 200th U.S. mass shooting of 2022, a year that is only 145 days old. Over 30 of those incidents have involved schools and children. This reminds me of the epidemic of drunk driving fatalities in the late seventies and early eighties. I myself lost five friends in my last two years of high school. It’s hard to imagine now, but these numbers were not abnormal. Somehow they were seen as acceptable. Until MADD formed.

In today’s world, intoxicated driving is still a problem, but greatly reduced and no longer ignored as an inevitable, unavoidable tragedy that we are somehow unable to stop.

Does that last part sound familiar?

It’s time for a new movement. Perhaps MASS. Mothers Against School Shootings. By any name, or none at all, it is past time for a change.

79 Extracted Words – The Tease May 2021

May 2021

I write short fiction, flash fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from a thought in progress.

Volunteers of America … volunteers of America. A sixties protest song, or a clarion call to this generation? We all know this world is not what we would hope for our kids. But can’t we change that? And isn’t the first step local? What can we do, in our own personal way to make things better, even if its just for one person. Because, if we do, in that person’s eye , we’ve changed the world. Let’s start changing worlds.

119 Extracted Words – The Tease April 2021

April 2021

I write short fiction, flash fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from an essay in progress.

What is wrong with the human animal. We are at the top of the heap. No animal has access to the resources we do, and yet, it just isn’t enough. We are literally burning up our planet with desire, the pursuit of happiness. But we’ll never have it. We push pill after pill down our throats and up our a**** and we’re no more satisfied for the effort. One out of six of us are on antidepressants, and four of the other five are on depressants (alcohol). I’m not passing judgment on the use of these substances, doing so would make me a gigantic hypocrite. But I am posing the question, to myself as well as others, why is it we have so much and enjoy it so little?

101 Extracted Words – The Tease March 2021

March 2021

I write short fiction, flash fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from a work in progress.

Ancient humans didn’t have Amazon, but they did have clay, natural dyes and creativity. They produced cave paintings and petroglyphs to explain their processes across the millenia. We think we know what some of them mean, others we do our best to interpret and yet others are simply baffling, leaving room for us to project our own meaning onto their images.

How does Amazon contribute to this discussion?

Furniture assembly.

Try putting together that new entertainment center that just arrived (in a much smaller box than it should have) and you’ll understand.

When future visitors see the instructions from this box, exactly how will they categorize these ambiguous, often contradictory pictures? Primitive? Mysterious?Perhaps they will simply cry out as I did entering my fourth hour of frustration.

Aaaahhhh!

That expression should be understood no matter what galaxy you are from.

163 Extracted Words – The Tease – November 2018

November 2018

I write flash fiction, non-fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from an essay in progress.

Almost all my possessions had been removed from my reach. I was with my family, but in a strange place, somewhat fearful for our safety. There were few familiar scents or sounds. Above all, I was displaced, uprooted, devoid of foundation. I was nearly homeless.

The ideals of empathy and love for our fellow humans, are never more tested than when we are actually faced with strapping on their footwear for a day, a week, a season. Recent experiences have taught me something about the homeless, and my naïve, misguided thoughts about what they truly need. I had always maintained the traditional view that food, shelter, protection from violent abuses, were the basic needs of those individuals forced to live on the street. And while all that is important, there is another element I had never considered, that might be even more vital to their survival.

 

37 Extracted Words – The Tease – July 2018

July 2018

I write flash fiction, non-fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from an essay in progress.

A writer knows as well as anyone, sometimes words just aren’t enough. A photographer sees so much more than what can be captured with a device. Life must encompass more than what we think we are experiencing.

 

 

59 Extracted Words – The Tease – March 2018

March 2018

I write flash fiction, non-fiction, essays and novels. This month’s Tease is from a work in progress.

 

The never-ending winter has finally ended. Birds are tweeting, buds are budding and for sale signs are popping up like mushrooms on nearly every front lawn, including my own. This experience has led me to ponder … what is the genesis of a sacred place? What makes our house a home? What are the ties that bind us to the places where we live and make it so difficult to let them go?