I was introduced to the concept of coffee when I was a child. They would not let me drink it, but I got to smell it percolating on the stove, and I watched my father drink his black coffee and I watched my mother drink her coffee with cream and sugar.
I begged them. But mama always said no, “Donnie, you are too young to drink coffee.”
Read MoreToday I am 73 years old. Happy birthday to me.
I have every reason to be thankful to be alive. On several occasions in my lifetime, I have flirted with death, or been exposed to deadly circumstances, twice being saved by merely standing here, rather than standing there … and once being saved by my inexperience with alcohol.
To be alive, to still be alive after all these years and all those close calls, feels almost like a miracle, and is certainly worthy of my deepest gratitude for the life I’ve been given and the life I’ve been spared so many times.
Read MoreI am a sometimes writer who is trying to develop my skills while getting more serious about and more consistent with my writing. I've always been frustrated by my lack of productivity and my long lapses. This is an eleven part series of articles addressing my attempt to get right with writing; a Table Of Contents is below. I discuss books on writing I've read, new writing tools and my new writing process. I also discuss my concerns, the obstacles I face, and my long term plans.
Read MoreI remember back to the days when there were no computer keyboards for untrained hands to hunt and peck at. It was a time when typewriters were for secretaries, a feminine thing – not something a man would ever want to do. Unless that man was a writer as I wanted to be.
But I had no typewriter. And I did not see myself as a typist.
I graduated from high school in 1966. Although I could have learned to type in school, back then I could not separate the “feminine” notion from my fantasy of been a writer. Some guys in my grade took typing, including one of my “straight A” buddies. But that just made him seem more weird to me. I knew he studied …. and studied a lot – that's nuts! (That's what I thought back then.) I had no idea that one day I'd own a computer and type on it every day. I supposed that the words my teenage mind might think of would always be captured by pen and paper. That's all I had at the time and all I ever thought I'd have.
Read MoreMy history tells me I am the owner of a previously capable brain of well above average ability. I have studied wide-ranging subjects of interest to me and understood those subjects to my complete satisfaction. That may be a false memory or ego or self-loving exaggeration talking but at least I have felt comfortable believing it was true for most of my life.
I've lost that loving feeling.