Tillicum

The massive wooden door of the castle opened slowly as if on its own accord. The girls of the community, some from fairly impoverished dwellings – certainly in contrast to where they now stood – starred mouth agape in awe as the ‘La vie du chateau’ door responded to their shy, tentative rap of the […]

Early morning before the sun is even awake and not a breath of a breeze bestirs the blackness of the water, little red blinking bow lights wink through the darkness, the whooshing throb of matched oars and creaking oarlocks the only whisper that an amphibious monster has passed. Now a sport, crew once won independence. […]

The quote is from Louis L’Amour’s “The Walking Drum.” ‘I have heard of your family name,’ the burly, red-haired ruffian shackled to the oar next to this newest galley slave said, “but what of you?’ From the “enthralling lands of the 12 century”, to July 2, 1863, to today, it’s a good question. “What of […]

There they stand. Nonchalant. Implacable. Disreputable. And they could care-the-heck less. Symptomatic of our times. The final four, as laid down a couple three-thousand years ago: “Wickedness, contempt, dishonor and disgrace.” It’s how it all goes down. Always does. In that order. Choose your villain. They are all the same. Desperadoes of deceit. Compadres in […]

There was no food, but they were fed up. Fed-Ex: Food-nada. A horrible famine had been brought about in a besieged city. Faced with the desperateness of their situation, hanging by a food-famished thread, the four – forlorn, forgotten and forsaken-by-society – made a risky decision. And therein lay the mechanism that put in motion […]

And, while you’re at it, toss the Virgin Mary, demolish stain glass windows of their friends, and rampage, rip, and similarly destroy murals. Simply because the images of the religious figures depicted are white. Here, according to Wikipedia, is what activist, writer and supporter of the Black Lives Movement, Shaun King, said June 22, 2020 […]

We celebrate births and birthdays, weddings and anniversaries, ribbon-cuttings and building dedications. And graduations. What do they all have in common? Not so much what The Day itself means but for what brought it about. The Day is a marker, a memorial, a reason to recall the rigors that make the day possible. And what […]

I checked my watch to see if it was indeed time to wake up. I hoped it wasn’t, but light streaming through the window said otherwise. My watch, however, as to informing me of anything that was its job to do, had gone totally bonkers. Date and time were intermittently flashing, with both having returned […]