Sunday Afternoon Stories

This was originally written in 2014. English is a funny, wonderful language filled with words that perfectly describe things. This isn’t always the case, such as with words like “chutzpah” and “schadenfreude.” Schadenfreude is a German word to describe taking pleasure in the misfortunes of other. Chutzpah is Yiddish meaning something close to audacity, but not really. With neither, English words just don’t do the meanings justice. There are plenty of English words — keeping mind that much of our language borrows heavily from others, especially Latin — that are perfect. “Fork,” for instance, is a perfect word describing not only an eating utensil (another perfect word), but a branch in a road. The word that has been going through my head lately, sadly enough, is “doldrums.” Maybe it’s because of a long winter, or various other things in my life right now. I don’t know what my issue is or if it’s just a combination of things, but I do know that “doldrums” describes it suffic...

I ran across a post on Facebook – a “sponsored post” that is – for a pamphlet or book or some such thing on how to write a novella. I get a lot of stuff like this in my feed and my email inbox. I am a writer, or at least I was, so these things have a way of finding me. For if you have any passion at all in your life, the online marketers will find you and try to get you to part with your money. I actually made a living as a writer for more than two decades, but now it is a much more difficult career path. There are many writers out there who are willing to work for a lot less than I am. That means if you want to raise a kid or pay a mortgage, you better be prepared to do something else. I still write, though, because I know how and I enjoy it. It’s kind of what I do. Like any other vocation, if you find it important you try to get better at it. Many writers want to get better, to find shortcuts to success, to find an agent and someone to publish our work. So there is a whole ...

Photo by Rory McClannahan New Mexico has miles of roads that are nothing short of a joy to drive. The 96-mile stretch of U.S. 285 between Vaughn and Roswell is not one. The road is straight, the views are endless with nary a landmark and the wind can be somewhat tortuous. Up until the end of 2016, the only thing of interest along the highway is a rest area at about the half-way mark. You also might be able to catch a herd of antelope grazing on the grass on either side of the highway. The road is so long and boring it sometimes makes a driver wonder if he has gone through a tear in the space-time continuum.