Tag: alcoholism
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If You Don’t Want to Think, Don’t Read This
A few weeks ago, I was a guest on Peter Biello’s public radio show. In this space I talked about how Peter, instead of asking to recommend five books, had asked me for some examples of writing prompts. It turns out the prompts, more than anything I said, were of interest to some folks. Full […]
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A Patriotic Rant with a Twist: A Veteran’s View of the Anthem
I am an American who loves this country. I am a voter who participates in democracy. I am a patriot who served this country. I take my hat off when I enter a building. I stand when I hear our national anthem playing—oddly, I do the same when I hear the anthems of Canada, England […]
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“Now She Can Watch Me All the Time”–A eulogy (with jokes) for my mom
George Bernard Shaw said, “Life does not cease to be a comedy when somebody dies, any more than it ceases to be a tragedy when a baby is born.” This morning, we will explore both comedy and tragedy as we remember Bev Howard’s life. A Zen master once said, “Life is like climbing into a […]
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The Bobbsey Twins and the Persistence of Memory
On my way from Manchester the Tiny White Box in Pittsburg, I took a detour through Lee and Durham, two towns where I lived for more than a third of my life. Since I was meeting my childhood best friend Jonas for lunch, and had an extra 15 minutes, I did something I’d never done […]
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Razors and Reciprocating Saws
Yesterday morning, I was in the shower at my daughters’ apartment, sort of/kind of using a razor to clean up the hair on my neck. (While in the Tiny White Box, I take showers two or three times a week—I believe I’ve complained about their inconvenience—so being able to get in a hot shower in […]
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There is No God but that Doesn’t Stop Him From Working
A dear friend wrote me last week, expressing her spiritual jealousy of my life in the Tiny White Box. Cate, who is much wiser, more centered and much, much more in tune with the universe than I ever dream of becoming, talked of my bravery and purity and purposefulness. All very kind eggs, but placed […]
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Pennies, Hijacking, Jenga and September 11
This past Monday, September 11, I got a group email from my previous life at Liberty House. The group, composed of folks from around New Hampshire who work with homeless veterans, is meeting next week, and this email announced date, time, place, etc. Because the first veterans’ writers’ retreat begins a week from Friday, and […]
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George Orwell in Germany. In the 1970s. In the US Army.
A reader, still unclear about my discussion of “process” in yesterday’s blog post, asked me to demonstrate. I won’t print the entire screed, but here’s a big chunk. Remember, the task I’d set for myself was to write an appreciation of George Orwell, who does not appear after the first third of this excerpt. […]
Tiny White Box--Thoughts on Life, Death, Recovery, and Other Mundane Topics 