Fantasies

Forget the photo. Clickbait.

There are about half a dozen people, perhaps as many as a dozen, on this platform that I wish, desperately, I could somehow be actual friends with, all together in one geographical place, like some fantasy college without the college, maybe some permanent coffee shop with free refills and no check.

And none of them are men.

I have always, for some reason, gravitated towards women as friends and, as a result, people have always assumed I was gay. This is a puzzlement, I know.

It isn’t the only reason, of course. I had a mousey…

Time. Place. Coincidence. Luck. Maybe even privilege.

Have those “qualities” at your disposal in addition to “talent” and you are “in.”

Some say it is who you know. Maybe that can help as well.

But never look askance at time, place, coincidence and luck, combined with talent. Talent itself has never done anyone any good.

Once I was going to be the next thing in poetry, they said, but it wasn’t the time or place. Unlucky. So I don’t write much poetry any longer. Poetry is…different now. Today I write fiction that sometimes has the quality of poetry, but not…

And don’t touch that poison squash!!!

We need to look at Purity In All Things Young as a goal, maybe, and reach for it. But we also have to take time out, always, to consider what we lose when we demand it…of others and ourselves.

Forget about whatever we might be thinking about politicians. They might be fooling us there, too, for our own good. Maybe not. What does it matter? Politics come and go; they change on a whim for most people.

Real politics for most people has to do with their stomachs, the roof over their heads, the future of their kids. …

[NOTE: This is not a scientific paper. As such, I will not, generally, be including references. Thank you.]

Let’s face it. Each one of us is unique in some fashion. Some of us can cross our eyes without a thought. I can do that. My sister taught me how when I was a toddler and I’ve had a floating eyeball ever since.

Thanks, doll…

Some can make the Vulcan handsign without hesitation. Live long and prosper, Topher Bigelow.

But, in fact, we mostly have more in common than we have these minor distinctions that keep us…distinct from each other.

And…

If you ever seek an answer as to why people who might be more supportive of, or interested in the subject of climate change AREN’T, don’t seek out environmentalists or politicians.

Look to the media.

And when you do, don’t point fingers, either.

Don’t scream at FOX News for their blatant disregard of the subject. Turn to your most trusted news sources (no, friend, not CNN…).

This morning I opened up my subscribed-to The New York Times online and discovered what was supposed to be a wonderful piece of news about climate change. Perhaps not nearly as “wonderful” as I’d like, but better than…

Our most wonderful and erudite contributor, Clare C.H., writes with a tremendous but ever-so-light touch at times about the common English language, how it grows and changes. People like myself (myself and others as editors, and others simply ranting as writers — for I never never rant) will at times speak upon the subject of slang, punctuation, or even sloppiness (some other day, perhaps, on the wonders of Grammarly).

Yet I have not seen the question raised, “Why, in this land, upon this continent first “claimed” by the Spanish, do we speak English at all?”

Here’s an interesting fact most people do not know.

When those original (actually second-wave…