Many histories of the world have chronicled civilizations via religion, culture, and the physical environment in which a society creates itself. Steven Solomon has entered his contribution of grand world historical accounts with his new book, “Water”. As may be gleaned from the title, Solomon writes how human civilization has been affected by that most universal of substances, water. How civilizations have utilized it to grow their civilization, have managed it to help them survive, and what they have done when it runs scarce are just some of the ways that Solomon writes about the entwining relationship with this vital substance. Read more….. »
Comparing Hurricane Katrina to the 2010 Haitian earthquake
When a natural catastrophe occurs, the response to the tragedy is imperative to how well the survivors manage in the aftermath. How quickly search and rescue teams find those in the rubble, how much triage is able to rescue the wounded, and how quickly aid and other vital services get to those left in the aftermath is a reflection of how successful the recovery effort is. Read more….. »
Animals and “human” emotions
There once was a young dog who was adopted into a home. When he first entered his new den, he met another dog, one who had been there for years before him. This young dog, he was excited. Another canine friend for him to play with, one he could chase around the house or wherever else he pleased. He immediately took up this new endeavor. The sound of two dogs scampering to and fro became a common occurrence. Read more….. »
Travel Destinations: The Galapagos Islands
The whole concept of a “bucket list” has become popular since the movie with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Ironically, I first encountered the movie on a plan en route to the Kona Coast in Hawaii. This had been a place I had wanted to go for years. Without realizing it, I’d created a bucket list and had just crossed off something. But that doesn’t mean my bucket list of destinations was now empty. Costa Rica sounded nice. So did the Galapagos Islands. Read more….. »
Farewell to the Chevy van
I sat in the passenger seat of the Chevy van, a place which had sat on and off for the last fourteen and a half years. Humidity was building up in this early hot summer morning. In that steam, a drop of water crawled down the windshield, like a teardrop. In the state of mind that I was in, it seemed as though the van was crying, knowing that it fate was sealed. Read more….. »
“How to Break a Terrorist”
After the attacks on September 11 in New York and Washington, the United States was thrust into a direct confrontation with terrorism. What was the best way to combat terror? How terrorists were brought to justice, questioned and detained became a debate of the ethics involved in the vindication of those lost in the terrorist attack, as well as those who were killed in the military exercises afterwards in Iraq and Afghanistan. Read more….. »
“Arctic Fox: Life at the Top of the World”
With global warming in the public eye, a lot more attention has been given to the life that will be affected by it. Most experts believe that climate change is adversely affecting the polar regions more quickly than the rest of the world. Read more….. »
First Church of the Streets Archives
I have added this page to my blog so you can view and comment about my E-Zine First Church of the Streets which ran from 4/2003 to 11/2008 All comments should be made on this page and include the month/year of the article so we can know what you refer to 🙂
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The “First Church of The Streets” e-zine is a means of answering these questions. It is non-sectarian in the sense that it doesn’t rely on any one religion to satisfy these answers. Neither does the church of the streets negate religion for comfort in secular classic philosophy. With it not being constrained to any particular dogma, the church of the streets can employ any or all of these methods. It is also free to use those schools which are considered too foolish to answer anything by so-called higher thinkers, such as popular culture. Just as religion and philosophy seem to give comfort to many in times of uncertainty, to many, popular culture is a refuge and an oasis. In this respect, it is as much a part of the church of the streets as anything else. History
Starting in 1998 I started posting my poetry and short stories online. My first website was an inclusion of these writings. When I completed my first two novels, I made them available online, in their entirety: New Earth Works. The E-zine was a natural extension of this activity. It went online in April 2003. It includes observations, as well as expository thinking. |
To Love and To Fall
Meet Tom. He’s had it really tough in his life, but he’s made it good because he’s worked hard. Growing up with drunks for parents that first abandoned him and then up and died, he’s an up and coming star in the academic world, all before he’s thirty, with nothing more than hard work and good old fashioned effort.
But no one seems to really appreciate all that he’s done.
It’s bad enough that his boss Scott at the university is on his back all of the time, and he can’t get his dissertation done, and that his sister Denise is on her third husband with a pain-in-the neck guy named Nigel. No, his girlfriend Serena of eleven years has decided that she’s an alcoholic, which is really just ridiculous because even though she can’t hold down a job because she’s drunk when she’s there and the alcohol decides filters are not needed so she tells everyone off constantly, Tom doesn’t see why she’s overreacting and it really is just messing with his mojo.
In fact, things have gone so out of hand that Tom winds up at a sober meeting with Serena, after some guy in a liquor store tells her where these weirdo gatherings in church meetings are. Now, how bad can things go from here? Can it get any worse for this poor guy who only wants to make a name for himself and love his girl in peace?
Oh, yeah. It sure will…..
Available for purchase as an e-book at Amazon .
The Minstrel
Synopsis
“The Minstrel” is a 130,000 word novel that takes place over the course of four months, with the exception of the conclusion, which takes place three years after the rest of the story. Its genre is that of subterficial urban drama, where many things seem to be happening below the surface for those characters that are willing to look. The perspective follows the experiences of seven disparate characters from an intimate third point of view: the protagonist, Raul Valesquez, a middle-aged Latino amnesiac searching for the daughter he has lost; Cindy DiEsposito, a thirtyish Caucasian woman who lives on the streets hiding from her abusive husband; Emmanuel Jackson, a fortyish African-American who to the outside eye is a charismatic Christian minister but internally is imprisoned by a crime he committed in his past; Jonathan Pfeifer, a Caucasian paralegal in his early thirties who is caught in a spiritual quagmire where he realizes that the cultural goals he pursues as an adult pale next to the idealism of his youth; his boss Russell Frawley, a playboy Caucasian lawyer in his late forties who finally finds meaning in his life of cynicism after meeting and falling in love with Cindy; Russell’s wife Joan Taylor Frawley, an alcoholic who is paying the price for giving up her individuality to fit the social norms of wife and mother, avenging her losses in such a way as to take down everyone in the society with her, and Carmen Sanchez, a middle-aged Latina nurse who is the key to Raul’s lost past. These people, representing conflicting sides of general society, come together in such a way that their latent prejudices and fears explode upon one another. Read more….. »
“Slave: My True Story”
Anyone who thinks that slavery went the way of the nineteenth century will be disabused of that belief when reading “Slave: My True Story.” Read more….. »
“Travelers’ Tales: Greece”
If you want to travel to Greece, or are interested in the history of the Mediterranean country, “Travelers’ Tales: Greece” is a must read. In the style of Travelers’ Tales, which is not so much a guidebook as essays of narrative nonfiction, editors Larry Habegger, Sean O’Reilly and Brian Alexander have selected wonderful essays which give the character and history of Greece. The essays cover many of the islands, Crete, and the entire peninsula of the mainland. Some of the essays evoke the romantic notion of seaside paradise, while others give a darker tone. There are excerpts from well-known travel writers such as Paul Theroux as well as relative newcomers. Enjoy this compilation of Greek travel, whether as preparation for a trip, substantial but entertaining reading on a beach in Crete, or as armchair travel and amateur anthropology. “Travelers’ Tales: Greece” is a very enjoyable book indeed.