Some things l’d like to tell my granddaughter in a few years, but probably won’t remember by tomorrow… Find your strength. People without power can’t generate compassion, only cooperation. Find your drive. The only prayer ever answered is effort. Every other invocation amounts to throwing pennies in a well. Find your allies. You’ll need more … [more]
Happy Memorial Day
30-May-2022 by 17 Comments
I’m not going this year. Down in the valley, valley so low, hang your head over and hear the wind blow across Tahoma, the nearest national cemetery where a friend I failed to meet lies under the green, green grass near home, no longer waiting for anyone. His family will go there today, regardless of … [more]
Painting by the numbers
11-May-2016 by 1 Comment
“__________ is just a number.” Is it, really? Only that? When you’re painting by the numbers, the colors aren’t your own. The amount of weight you lifted ten years ago (or last week): that’s just a number. It means nothing to you now. The amount you lift today is a piece of your life as it … [more]
Scuffs and Patches
30-March-2014 by 3 Comments
Smalldaughter’s tone was polite but imperative. It was the second sentence that moved me into a sprint that made my back quit hurting. I heard her voice echo down the hall. “Jack, I need you. “Ruby got hit by a car.” The girls’ trust is touching. I wasn’t as calm as they are when I … [more]
Boxing Day
21-December-2013 by 5 Comments
It’s not much of a present: kind of a lumpy little box, knocked up from plywood with brad-pinned butt joints. Its four stubby legs are sawn sections of thick oaken doweling, and the vaguely shoe-shaped carrying handle doubles as a foot rest for a man receiving a shine. Shoe shine boxes were a classic shop … [more]
ROK ‘n’ roll
15-November-2013 by 5 Comments
Once upon a time back in the misty past of the early 1980s, a geeky 19-y.o. pushed BCGs up his nose, hoisted a green duffel over his green polyester leisure suit with its one lonely ribbon, and got onto Flight 007 to head for the Republic of Korea via Japan. We didn’t yet know how … [more]
A terse reminder
13-November-2013 by 1 Comment
Dear fellow American, I’d like to pass along this brief reminder, for purposes of clarification. Despite what others may say, you’re not part of the problem if you: believe your President heralds the coming of the Antichrist call your military servicemembers “sadists” and “mass murderers” insist on social control of vaginas, but are afraid to … [more]
Remission Rates & Dog Rebates
5-November-2013 by 7 Comments
I’m almost afraid to post this. One year before the day before Halloween 2013, Tucker Dog had his leg taken off due to cancer. In medical terminology, he was “disarticulated at the hip,” which is just as horrifying and brutal as it sounds. He came home on Halloween night shaking with terror, crawled up on … [more]
"Jack Lewis takes the overall literary crown with his new book...there’s a lot more to Lewis’s work than what it feels like to ride motorcycles.” — Ultimate Motorcycling
"Insightful and from the heart ... a driven and much recommended look into the mind and conflict of the next generation of war veterans. " — Midwest Book Review (Reviewer's Choice)