Category: Literary Journey

Fact or Fiction Friday – What Is Isn’t Always Seen

January 29, 2021

Literary Journey

It’s December and a beautiful sunny day, but cold. It’s the kinda day where you bask in the warmth of the sun through the windshield of your car because if you are outside, the warmth is snatched away by the bitter cold, instantly reddening your cheeks. No sunburn, frostbite.

Such a day as this is to be celebrated as the exception to the typical gray days of winter in Chicago. So, to celebrate, a road trip is order – Lake Geneva, here we come.

Lake Geneva is one of my favorite places on the planet, and we is me and my old friend Jock. Although I love Lake Geneva, I have never once considered going to the frozen tundra that is Wisconsin in the winter. It’s a summer place, for boat rides and ice cream following an outdoor lunch overlooking the mansion-lined lakefront.

I drive the rental car to pick up my friend and traveling companion who proffers a slim, hand-rolled marijuana stick. My, my, it’s something I haven’t done in years, so I’m not sure whether I should partake or not.

One thing about me is that when presented with a temptation, I very rarely decline. Here we go.

We drive north, the wind gets stronger, the thermometer drops lower, and we are high. We pull off to the side of the road periodically to take a hit or two of the skunky weed, it is after all a road trip, no rush. We freeze our butts off, but don’t feel it. Giggly.

Lake Geneva is beautiful, but it has lost some allure in its frozen state as the boats are gone, restaurant patios are shuttered, and no one is eating ice cream in 10 degree weather. We cut the trip short and head back to my hotel. Jock is looking to spend more of my final two days in town, but I have plans and have to beg off. Persisting, he asks “What could be more interesting than spending time with me?” Reluctantly, I tell my pagan friend, “I’m going to visit my old church.” He pulls a face and says, “I didn’t know your were a Christian.”

I brushed it off at the time, but recently I have been thinking about how loud that one little statement speaks to who I am, and who I am not.

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Lyrical Thoughts Thursday – Hot Beach Days

January 28, 2021

Literary Journey

Hot beaches, swell,

                big bodies, little bodies, everywhere.

Sailing by boats

                surf meets sand, and

                                                                Sunshine

                and sand meets surf.

Boats by sailing

                everywhere, bodies little, bodies big

Swell beaches, hot.

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Freewheelin’ Wednesday – Woman Accused of Wearing Too Much Lipstick

January 27, 2021

Literary Journey

I was surfing the national news page earlier today and noticed an article about a woman and man who ended up on their local Bridgerton, MD news when police were called by a man on the street.

The couple, Marie and Harold Lipshutz, were going out for a walk after dinner at Vino’s Italian Eatery around 7:00 EST, when, according to passerby, John Seizit, the man took the ladies scarf from her neck and started to, in Mr. Seizit’s words, “violently scrub her face with it!” She then, took something out her purse and proceeded to rub it on the man’s face, and it appeared to be cutting his face to shreds. Seizit, fearful that this man was going to die, did what any interfering, nosy citizen would do; he called the police.

Minutes later, the squad car pulled up next to the couple, and Seizit (too cowardly to approach earlier), sidled up to the action, and heard the man tell the officer, “The Italian, Guiseppe, just can’t keep his eyes off my Marie, but it’s her fault, she just wears too much darn lipstick!” Apparently, Mrs. Lipshutz didn’t take it too kindly and she decided he should wear too much lipstick all over his face.

Seizit had nothing to fear, the man wasn’t going to die from a lipstick death. Just goes to show you, sometimes it’s just better to keep your lips shut.

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Let’s Book Tuesday – Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir

January 26, 2021

Literary Journey

Book: Sounds Like Titanic: A Memoir

Author: Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman

Year: 2019

So this is an interesting book about a musician that takes a gig as a violinist for a traveling show.

Writing in 2nd person was always something I enjoyed using for my shorter stories, so it was a pleasant surprise to see it used in this book. It’s so rare to see! Personally, I always used it to create an air of immersion for readers. I like to induce tension for my readers. I like drama and suspense. The reason I used 2nd person was because I wanted the reader to feel like they were plopped right in the middle of the action. You feel this way. Why? Because I wrote that you do (LOL).

At the same time, it was really odd to read Hindman’s reason for using 2nd person because it was so different from my own. She’s using “you” to indicate that her (the writer) reality felt like a fiction; I used “you” to try to convince the reader that the fiction was a reality. I think my prior mindset made it hard for me to engage with the story. I was reading it with my mindset of what “you” meant, but that meant that I was trying to become her (does that make sense?) My reality is very different from Hindman’s, so trying to put myself in her shoes, especially knowing that these events really happened, really wasn’t working. Once again, it seems like my sticking point is the non-fiction part of CNF. I think I’m going to need to reflect more on what she’s trying to achieve with her “you” to better engage with this work.

More to come next week as I read more. Why don’t you read with me!

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Monday’s are Made for Memories – Amazon Love

January 25, 2021

Literary Journey

Is there anyone on the planet that doesn’t have a relationship with the smiling box which magically appears on the doorstep?

Ping! You’re package has been delivered.

Since I purchase many types of items from the behemoth, I have different levels of response to that ping.

Ping! You’ve got shampoo – meh.

Ping! You’ve got Scott’s lawn insect killer – groan.

Ping! You’ve got your new itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini – yay! (Well, maybe it’s not so tiny)

Ping! You’ve got curtains… the curtains you’ve been waiting for. The curtains that will make your library look like a garden on the bottom with their robust pink and yellow blossoms and tiny bluebells amid stalks of greening stems and leaves; the curtains that provide the English Garden near the ground while the white spanse above softly filters the light; the curtains that will allow the reader to be immersed in a virtual garden experience. Yes! The curtains have arrived! Let’s get them up!

Amazon, always at the fingertips. The thought enters my mind that I need hooks, prang, you’ve got hooks. Oh darn, my earbuds stopped working, thank you Prime. You need it, they’ve got it. Just pick up your iPad (or phone or laptop or anything that gets you to the internet) and Amazon’s smile turns to a gaping mouth that spews forth innumerable options, beckoning – come in my dear, while it eats you alive. It’s a kind of hell, where the devil laughs, “muhahahahahahaha!a Come buy… I have all the answers for you.”

This same devil beacons the lumber scavenger to the Amazonian jungle. Men (and women?) who think that these natural resources are theirs for the taking, and they, rape the majesty that is the namesake of store of the future – a future without trees, but surrounded by an endless supply of things. Hopefully, we can still breathe.

creative non-fiction, commentary,

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Sunday’s Sermon Notes – The Value of a Million Bucks

January 24, 2021

Literary Journey

Solomon, known for his wisdom, speaks in Ecclesiastes 2 about how meaningless having everything one desires is. As I read this passage today, I couldn’t stop thinking about how, we as a society, and me in particular, think that having money will offer us the dream life. I have been watching The Amazing Race for the past year (roughly an episode a day), and I like to think I have watched the 28 seasons (so far) for the excitement of challenge and travel, which I do, but I also know someone will win one million dollars, so I pick a winner at the start of every new season. Likewise, they all say they love the travel and the race, but they too can’t help but imagine a life where they are the winner and have a million bucks.

When we feel good, we say we feel like a million bucks, but the vast majority of us do not know what it would feel like to have a cool million, (Is it really cool?) and anyway, nowadays even a million doesn’t seem like what it once did. Perhaps it’s time to start to say, “I feel like a billion bucks,” when we feel great, cause inflation means that cool million feels only like measly hundreds of thousands. No one wants to say, “I feel like a few hundred-thousands.” It just doesn’t have the same ring.

The Amazing Race is just one way to join the Millionaire’s Club, and I bet you can think of several and probably have your own dreamionaire fantasy.

Yet, Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived they say, says even if you got all the money in the world, you would still not be satisfied. In a world of retail therapy, half-million-dollar ranch homes, and keeping up with the whoevers, those millions are just sucked up anyway, and we are left, after all the things purchased, going through the spinning doors, chasing the material-satisfaction mirage on the horizon. And Solomon, after going through many open doors, says there is only one door that needs to be opened, and it will fulfill that empty space in ways a gazillion dollars never could. Best of all – it’s free.

Don’t you love free?

I do too!

Don’t you love peace?

I do too.

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Saturday Night Cinema – Antebellum

January 23, 2021

Literary Journey

Movie: Antebellum

Director: Gerard Bush, Christopher Renz

Genre: Horror/Thriller

Year: 2020

Deep South politics are the order of the game in this intriguing story. The plot takes you on a rollercoaster ride that seemingly has no stopping points. As you travel through the darkness, with moments of illumination, finding yourself teetering at the hill, then you plunge down onto another twisty turn, and dip into mystery.

Antebellum has a message that is at once obscured and overt simultaneously, but doesn’t quite come into maturity. It may, perhaps, get you to think about the ramifications of self in a luminosity of time unknown previously, but even if it doesn’t, the ride will keep you awake.

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Fact or Fiction Friday – Intent

January 22, 2021

Literary Journey

The curtain fell, and the earth rose, compressing the gap called day. I sit in my canvas cave reflecting on the last hours, and of what the next hours bring. Exposed in my sensitivity, the elements take center stage, for now, and I, I am but a speck locked away behind the fragile toothline guarding the way in, keeping me safe within.

It sure is dark outside. The leaves rattle unseen. The army follows its invisible trail, greeting its brethren in its search, unseen in the midst of grass, leaf, and twig. The moon has stayed home tonight, and with it, its light, closeted for the night’s black. The only things seen are the tiny pinpoints in the deep sky, and the soft hue that silhouettes my hovel.

The day took its toll. After finding the one I love most, cold. I cannot bear another sigh, another cry. I slunk away unseen. This dark night, so black, black and cold, wraps its arms around me. I am alone here, there.

Tonight, I wait, and wonder if tomorrow will change the events of today. For tonight, I hide safely within myself, within the cloak of night. Outside – in my temporary shroud. I hope they don’t come for me, too.

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Lyrical Thoughts Thursday – Deep Wells Pulling

January 21, 2021

Literary Journey

Those sad eyes.

Deep wells of thought.

Thoughts so deep that they bury.

They bury,

They sink,

To depths

Of black holes.

Tearing.

Ripping.

Stretching and pulling,

The blackness.

The boundless edges

For grabbing,

But not grasping.

Hopeless.

Lost.

Gladly succumbing

To the draw

Of the vortex.

In the depths

Of the dark eyes.

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Freewheelin’ Wednesday – Whitehouse Merger

January 20, 2021

Literary Journey

Today the Whitehouse has yet again gone through a change in leadership. Negotiations were extensive, and the board weighed in that a complete takeover was in the best interest of the company.

As with any takeover, there are going to be some people who do not agree with what the head-honchos have decided. There will be those who leave the company, those who stay on but bitch and moan, and sometimes those who are out to sabotage the effects of the new regime.

In general, most accept the outcome as out of their sphere of influence, and go along with the objectives of the winners.

Perhaps saying winners or losers isn’t quite the American Way, where every one deserves to be a winner (unless you are against me), but like it or not there will always be hierarchies of success.

I am very interested in seeing how this amalgamate directs the needs of the company. Our corporation depends on successful outcomes. We, Americans, want to be winners. Just as Ford and Chevrolet were too big to fail, how much more is it that this new leadership not fail, and not only not fail, but further the values that make America free and beautiful.

I, for one, believe in America. American values are what have beckoned people from all over the world. My hope is this merger continues this gold star standard, and the dream continues for its citizens, and a beacon to the world, reflecting God’s love and his divine blessing.

“Satan comes as a thief to steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10:10), and often on the coattails of a corporate merger. What a life we are blessed with in the good ol’ USA; there is none as great as she.

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