A Whisper in the Sawmill

Let’s look at a popular saying that has been floating around for a long time: Needless to say, this is an oversimplification. No one reading this is going to gladly admit that they have a “small mind.” Not only is this theory problematic, but the elitist and self-serving nature of it is perilous. The idea that if you do X then you are A is too easy. Many different people do many different things. Athletes eat ice cream, comedians read war novels, award winning physicists watch cartoons. To say that a great mind such as a Harvard professor or a renowned philosopher never engaged in a little gossip is absurd. To wonder and talk about what it means to be human, why we are alive, what is truth and justice is a natural human behavior. One might even say it is what separates us from the animals. Any person is capable of looking at a situation and examining its cause and effect. The unexamined life is a myth.To deny so called “small minds” this very human char...

     I've been watching this particular YouTuber for a while. He likes to play horror games. I found myself wondering how he would respond if those things actually happened to him. I also wondered how I would react. Then I wondered how we would react together. It may be silly, it may be self-indulgent, and it may be more than a little wish-fulfillment but I had a lot of fun writing it. I hope you have fun reading it. ********** It was my second morning in Santa Monica and it was shaping up to be a beautiful bright day. I was heading out around 10 am to begin my generic touristing for the day. I was planning on being away from my room for most of the day, so I packed my backpack with what I might need and jumped onto the empty elevator. At the very next floor the bell dinged and the doors opened to admit a dark haired man in a black t-shirt who was tapping away at his phone. He glanced up at me as he stepped inside and nodded politely before moving to press the butt...

I don’t go downtown often, only a few times a month to do laundry. When I do I like to walk around town and stop in the little hipster tea house on Hall Street. It’s a little overpriced, but I like to shop local when I can. I usually get a chai tea, hot or iced depending on the weather. This day I felt like trying something new. The tea house is in an old converted building made of old wooden beams. Everything is slightly tilted or warped. There’s barely enough room inside for the counter and a row of benches and small tables along the wall. If anyone pulls up a chair to one of the tables they risk cutting off the line to the counter. It doesn’t feel too cramped though, on account of the two huge bay windows that flood the whole place with lots of natural sunlight. There’s a young person in nearly every seat. I see a lot of beards, scarves, handmade crochet bags, and colorful dreadlocks. Mismatched mugs and crumb covered saucers litter the tables. Everyone has a laptop, everyone i...

All the Pretty Words All the pretty words have already been said a thousand thousand times by a thousand thousand minds all the verse and all the prose all the songs and all the odes have been written have been sung have been said All the thoughts that I could think all the things that I could feel are expressed by someone somewhere else more skillfully gracefully vividly what more is there to add? I saw an ocean in your eyes. Darkness lifted in your arms. and all the days are grey since you left me.