I was born in 1980, which was 35 years ago. The dominant geo-political drama in the world 35 years ago was the struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. In and around the year 1990, quite unexpectedly, the Soviet Union collapsed, and nearly every nation that had been a part of it converted rapidly from communism to some form of democracy. That was a historical shock! Nobody in 1985 was saying that the Soviet Union would be gone soon. It was exciting when the Soviet Union fell, it made you feel good as a human being to see it dissolve, to see democratic demonstrations succeed, to see the Berlin Wall smashed to bits by giddy, euphoric Berliners. It made you feel like there was hope for the world, for humanity — that good was destined to triumph over evil. It was, for us in the United States, a triumphant and beautiful time. We had been right, our values had prevailed, freedom rang louder and brighter across the globe, democracy marched forward inevitably. Our shining city on a hill would lead the way forward for them. Albeit, we weren’t perfect. Albeit, we had problems of our own. But our faults were relatively small, even our former enemies admitted that; we had no skeletons in our closet to compare to the likes of Stalin. Continue reading
Sneak Peek: the Sequel to Blazing the Sun
Today I have a special treat for you: A preview snippet from the upcoming sequel (title still classified) to Blazing the Sun !
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The ‘Never’ Cut
the ‘Never’ Cut + sand : raw, virgin hair untouched by scissors and tools of any kind
So… sometime this summer I did a new hairstyle thing. One day I shaved my face and then I shaved my head, and then I thought, ‘Well, I’ll just never cut or trim any of this again.’ Let it all grow out even, the way it wants to, unfettered and un-harassed.
From where (sic) came the inspiration for this fantastic idea, you say? Partly, it was inspired by laziness. Partly, it was inspired by love of nature. Partly it was inspired by skepticism. But the larger truth is: it was inspired by babies! You know, babies whose hair is allowed to grow out all wild before they get their first haircut? Sometimes that actually looks pretty cool!
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Reading from my novel The Young Garden Manifesto
Did you read The Young Garden Manifesto yet? Did you not read it yet? (for shame!)
Here I am reading one of the New York City vignette chapters from the book. If you haven’t read it yet, this is a small taste of what you have been missing! If you have read it, this is the chapter that begins with, “To be read aloud.” Several readers have expressed interest in hearing a reading of this chapter, so this is it in the author’s own voice. Enjoy!
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Inaugural Post!
It’s finally time to create an official first post and start filling The Granite Notebook up with content! The website has been unofficially live for a few weeks now, but I have still been occupied with putting the final touches on it. There are a few little things left to do in that regard, but for the most part what remains is the whole point of the thing in the first place: to focus on writing articles and posts.
And I will be doing that in the immediate future. The posts will probably come in waves, sometimes several a week, sometimes only one or two a month, depending on how inspired and how busy I am. I don’t want any of the content to seem forced or to be filler — when you come here you should always be able to expect something genuine and thought provoking. That will sometimes mean that there isn’t constantly something new.
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