Category: Essays

  Simply because I move about, leave my geographical location entirely, or change residence does not necessarily mitigate the impact of home, nor does it mean t...

    I joined the Peace Corps in 1993.  Mostly I did it for the adventure, but people often mistook me for an idealist, and they still do.  They project the...

                                                                I   At 11 AM on New Year’s Eve my dog stares at me, square in the eyes, from under a brow of bla...

  I remember the envelope my Peruvian-born father, Ramon, sent me as clearly as I remember the itch I had to take a lighter to it.  On the return label, I could...

  “Show me something Joel.” My boss looked toward his boss’s office, then looked back at me. I had assumed a wrestling stance, feet side by side, arms bent...

  I slipped, fell on my ass and started sliding off the rock ledge. I reached out for a sapling, roots, anything, waving my arms when finally I reached for the ...

1   On a rainless mid-July afternoon, Cara and I trekked along Rock Creek’s Lake Fork in the Beartooth Mountains northeast of Yellowstone National Park. Though ...

    Once a boy drowned at a summer camp.  This was in June of 1968.  It was early evening, a dinner of fried chicken and green beans already breaking down ...

  Within almost arm’s reach of my cellblock 5G post sat Tiny Timmy Tyler. There too at the circular Visitation table was his mother. I overheard, “You must...