In the introduction to my first book, I made a general observation about the human species; “At our core, the primal driving forces of the human race, as they are with all living creatures, is pretty straightforward: we are born, and we die, and along the way, in the name of survival, we labor to…
I came of age in the ’70s and, through that initial stretch of mid-to-late puberty and into early adulthood, I dressed like the classic hippie; I had long dark red hair, a full dark red mustache and beard, and – I’m told – “lovely” green eyes. While it might have been clear that I would…
I have had animals in my life, of one sort or another, since I was five years old. Nearing my 65th birthday and trying to formulate in my mind the best way to tell this story, I tried to go back and remember the names I had given the creatures in my life along the…
I have made no secret of my general disdain for the greater majority of the human race, and I make no apologies; it has been my experience, over the course of my almost 65 years, that most people are rude and selfish as well as possessing a far greater sense of self-importance than they have…
This story begins in late October 1999. If it were a movie, the opening scene would be me driving a really shitty car, running countless red lights and stop signs, with a screaming 18-year-old woman (my daughter) sticking her bare right foot out of the passenger side window as everyone in the car is yelling…
My grandmother, God rest her, always used to say, “believe half of what you see and none of what you hear.” It is an expression I have used myself more times than I can remember over the past sixty or so years since I first heard it. The older I get, the more I see…
It occurred to me this morning, while Daisy and I were having coffee (I’ll explain that in a minute), that it might be fun to offer up a little “Day in the Life” narrative about this whole “Hermit” thing… At least as it relates to my particular ways of living the Hermit lifestyle I have…
For those not here from the beginning, I started my originalSubstack page – “Essential American Wisdom” – in early January of 2022, on the heels of having published my first book on Amazon. Choosing to take some time off after that and Meander my way through the holidays, I figured “new year, new start” and…
Walking along the outside wall, making my way past the store windows into the knife section, I came to a screeching halt.
Editor’s note: This was first published back on Christmas Eve of 2009. The world was a dramatically different place back then. Accordingly, it has been nuanced over the years since its first publication. The message it intends to convey, however, is timeless. This year… 2022… The world is in an especially troubling place. Even as…