“In such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners.”- Camus
Dispatches is one of the great American books of the 20th Century. I last read it over 40 years ago, and I simply did not have the maturity and years of reading and living necessary to fully appreciate its brilliance. Michael Herr was 28 when he spent a full year reporting from Vietnam in 1968, the year of the siege of Khe Sanh and the Tet Offensive. Dispatches, published in 1977, is his record of that year. […]
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Site: A Catholic Church, during Mass Casualties: 2 children dead, ages 8 and 10; 14 children wounded between the ages of 6 and 15; 3 elderly parishioners wounded. Number traumatized: unknown. Perpetrator: Single White Male, aged 23 The definition of murder: “the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another.” The definition of repetition: “the recurrence of an action or event; a thing repeated.” The definition of madness: “a […]
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Most of us think about events in terms of stories. We may not know the terms, but they take the form of a narrative structure of exposition, ignition, rising action, climax, aftermath, resolution – questions answered, endings ended, and time for the next narrative. That life does not really look like this doesn’t matter – much of the time we do not know how something begins or what sets the […]
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Ligaments cushion joints, tendons connect muscles to bones. Our skeletons keep us upright. Together, they give us movement, strength and flexibility. If they are torn asunder by accident or by torment, we come to a halt and sometimes collapse until, if we are lucky, surgery can repair the damage. In other words, we come apart at our seams. Every day seems to deliver more examples of the connective tissues of […]
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