Writing Reality

 "Oh God! He was so innocent." I mumbled to myself as I'd gotten into the first chapter of "Born Survivors" by Wendy Holden. The ongoing debate He was unwilling to see my side as truth 42 years ago, then the last time I brought it up over 20 years ago. I wondered why, but then I gave up the one debate I knew was the truth, it was about how we in the United States needed to quash hatred and how to go about doing so. This morning I was forced to reflect back on one thing that he had no longer wanted to view with me, documentaries on the Holocaust.  Yes, my Jewish husband had to stop watching them about 20 years ago. I had to view them alone in our living room after he and kids had gone to bed. I can say I didn't wonder why, it was disturbing. Yet I forced myself to watch the known horrors unfold in the documentaries I'd watched.  My husband could watch certain scary movies with our oldest, like "Alien", "Poltergeist"; however, I couldn...

  “People die.” She said. That line was stated to me nearly seven years ago, by a childless woman, who’d just lost her husband who I’d been taking care of for a number of years. I was still in her life as a therapist taking care of her mother and once in a while herself when she’d moved too many boxes as she was having repairs and the like done around her home and her mother’s home a few miles away. She, being about a decade older than I and had been retired from teaching for some time now, was alone in a near empty house. A house much bigger than my home with my husband, two children and three pets. I took her thoughts in stride. She was sad, as she’d just lost her ailing husband. She was well aware that he’d pass; however, I knew the exact day he’d die ten weeks before. I remember coming home and being upset after the session at their home and stating, “I know someone will die before Memorial Day ends, and that they will not see June 1 st .” My husband looked at me dumbfounded,...

Photography by Sarah Q. Reicher  Every morning, I awake I thank my Maker. I say "Thank God." I don't do this for any particular religious reason. I do this for gratefulness to all of it. It’s not just because I've been close to death for any variety of reasons. Neither because I've witnessed death, though I have. It is because I know how fleeting life is. We truly never know when this physical journey in the vessel we're residing in will end. Or perhaps, it’s my wanting to be there, altogether healthy and alive till I know our children no longer need me. Truly, that is the main reason. And there's something personal I want to experience before this thing called 'me' dies. Our children have barely anything to do with this desired experience I have. I don't know if I'll experience it ever, but I want to. It’s a solo journey. And for once in my life, it’s not about science all that much; however, currently I’m in this science mode as usual thi...

  We purge truth to comfort a white man. We prostrate ourselves for him to break our backs. Cancelling love, compassion and truth in one fell-swoop. Cherishing nothing, we have nothingness. Our loss is his gain. His gain is unearned. He knows not our sorrow, for his sorrow is more. His appointees state their near-whiteness. Their fake eyes and fake haired glares of filth. It is without soul that diminishes their care. A defunct and failed man rules with fake wealth. He buys them rich then brings them poor. Our D-class status arises from Confederate ashes. Ignorance is embraced by the willful ignorant. Gutless men who’ve existed for centuries remain in power. Its about fear, fear that we may take care of the land. Fear that we may save the people they refuse to understand. Fear of peace through expression betrayed. The comfortable white man has become restless. The feral king realizes his death will arrive. He rouses up the racists, so he will...

  Jesse Jackson has passed. I had no real premonition on such an event; however, the week prior to his passing I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I’d wondered how old he was as I was out for my daily run. I figured maybe 90 years old but was uncertain of his age. Funny enough there were so many things I remembered about him. I wondered why he was on my mind on my daily training runs, then as I’d gotten home from my run I forgot all about it, till I awoke the day his passing was announced. Immediately, my heart sunk; then sunk a little bit more when I’d read he was just 84 years old. I wondered where my timeline on his age was. I knew he and Andrew Young were friends and knew Martin Luther King fairly well. I also knew Andrew Young was older than Jesse Jackson. After Jesse Jackson’s passing, I wondered how his life and legacy would positively affect our world today.   That night I had a dream about him and Malcolm X. Yes, I’ve had some profound dreams in my lifetime. Some ha...

A few days ago, I watched the nearly ‘sure thing’ that the Olympic Gold medal for Men’s Figure Skating was either Japan’s Yuma or the USA’s Ilia. I saw the short programs of nearly all the men competing. I believe it was that program that I’d watched ‘live’. Yes, there were mistakes. I’d thought they’d finished a couple of days ago and that Ilia had won. I moved onto watching Luge, Curling, Slalom, Hockey, Short Track, Speed Skating, X-Country Ski, Biathlon, Half-pipe, Super-G, Skelton and a few other events.1 I’ve always been into the Winter Olympic Games since I could remember. Now that is nearing on 60 years. Lately, I’d been reading a lot more as well, finishing three books I’d started in mid-January, starting a fourth one and doing very little writing in the past few days. This was due to the fact our oldest was coming home for a visit and I had wanted to cater to her, along with completing certain house chores that I’d left undone due to the snow and ice accumulations on and arou...