Below you will find a collection of my most recent essays and stories. Some material may not be suitable for children. Access to my older work and previous posts are available using the menu on the left.
Some of my work is available for purchase on Amazon. Visit my page for more details.
On January 6, 2021 there was a violent attack on the United States Capitol.
This seems like a self-evident statement, to the point that people might even say ‘no duh’. However, the ensuing time has made the memory of these events fade for most people, except for those who were directly involved. While normal, this does not mean that the gravity of that event is lessened just because the passage of time has taken place, and the news channels all the social media fanfare have moved on to other travesties and drama.
However, it’s fair to say that no matter how vague the memories, the January 6th events were horrific in nature. Some might even call the events of 1/6/21 a terrorist event, of the ‘domestic extremist’ kind. Most would agree that it was a tragedy for all involved.
Mostly.
The hills were silent as the evening began its dance. Mercifully no light shone anywhere, other than what the moon’s gaze permitted as it commenced its rising over the statue that many called Freedom.
In the midst of this splendor, there was an intentionally anonymous female. She was a witness to this scene frozen with vibrancy, squeezing the joy of this moment for all it was worth before it vanished and the violence of life returned.
It was good hear the crackle of the sky and no other noise, she thought. Now, this was heaven wrapped in a bow to her.
Poetry, whatever that was supposed to be in these times, had finally lost its ego and became a thread that quietly watched and absorbed. Or some such concept like that, when all the chatter that made it was forever muted.
What all these metaphors actually meant, she had no idea. Nor did she really care, because what did that matter? She only knew that when nothing really held history anymore, strange things could come to light and capture meaning, without the weight of definition to justify it.
Civilization had made such mental juggling necessary, where one was forced to defend ad nauseam every iota of reasoning and action. At least, what had passed as ‘civilization’, with its falsetto gaslighting as it drained itself into a black hole of its own making.
Read more….. »
The roads leading away from the old city are finally quiet as I walk in their darkness, away from the violence and bloodshed that the city has brought to us once more. We, the ones who guard the water that everyone wants no matter the cost to others.
And, no matter the cost to themselves.
No one remembers who fired the first shot, or when the first bomb fell.
But we do know one thing. In the moment when the war’s first scream was heard, there was no going back to the pretense of the peace that came before.
Read more….. »
There was a man with a secret, one that he did not even tell his wife.
If he did make the secret known, everything would change and chaos would ensue! The laws of physics would cause the magnetic poles to shift! Calderas everywhere would burst into a violence that would murder the skies for centuries!
Well, that sounded good, anyway. Corny and melodramatic, the perfect words for a sappy opening of one of those bad novels that you found on the side of the road after seven generations of garage sales fetched twenty-five cents for it.
The silence in the pine forest weighed heavily upon the biota that resided there, spreading like a contagion throughout each member of its body. What was its cause? Was it torpor? Dread? Or, was it a desperate hope of a prayer so intense, all sound had collapsed into its bones?
In its midst, a voice broke the stillness. One voice, and one voice only.
The voice was that of a tiny bird of prey, one so small she could be overlooked. Known in these parts as a ‘Northern saw-whet owl’, she could be seen as many things, depending on who did the observing, or who was doing the hiding. Read more….. »
You were there ten years ago when all that was good collapsed.
You were the one who let it happen.
You watched, and did nothing.
You were a spectator to bloodshed, but not a witness full of blameless innocence. Read more….. »
My dear friends, have you ever seen people being led around, as though they have not a thought of their own in their own heads?
Have you scratched your head wondering, how did this come to be?
Have you read or seen the news, followed tweets and other social network posts, watching the downfall of loved ones, hated ones, and celebrities as they devolve from free people into bot-like minions?
Have you ever gasped in disbelief at their stupidity, knowing that you would do so much better than they ever would?
If you have answered “yes” to even one of these questions, if you have ever felt this way for even one second of the precious life that the Fates have gifted you, my good dear friends, I can tell you this with utmost confidence: Read more….. »
If you are looking for a quick and easy way to pay it forward this Earth Day, and have access to the World Wide Web, Ecosia has a solution for you.
What the heck is Ecosia?
According to its website https://www.ecosia.org, Ecosia is “the search engine that plants trees”.
Now, how does it manage to do that?
So we, like ‘we’ meaning Paul, Mal and yours truly the one and only moi…. Isaac!, we were walking down Alii in good old Kona Town, going from the library to meet up with Gloria when she finished up her shift at Basics Store by the pier. I think it was cruise day, and everyone was all boarding the trolley to go to Big Box to buy plastic pineapples and leis made in China and that, and I think Mal was just finishing up another hardly working stint selling his homemade pictures to all the tourists. Read more….. »
I follow all the rules of the good nation that I live in.
I have followed them perfectly all of my life.
If I can keep all the rules until my awakening next month, I will become apprenticed to teach what I have learned to those who will come after me. I have much to be grateful for, all the good things I have been given.
It is a great honor that will be bestowed upon me, to be entrusted to teach as I have been taught. The leaders have told me so, and I believe them because they speak truth. Read more….. »
If you are concerned that business has gotten too cutthroat and Machiavellian, and believe you can’t have your ice cream and save the world at the same time, there may be some hope to alleviate your dilemma: Certified B Corporations (1).
What the heck are “Certified B Corporations”? Read more….. »
Only three weeks ago, there was a forest here.
When the forest was here, to say that life was evident and vibrant would have been an understatement.
Brilliant hues of color and light, dark shades of velvety texture,
Songs and cries loud as thunder and as soft as whispers,
Scents at once pungent, sweet, foul, crisp and moist,
All of these are now gone. Read more….. »