An Experience With Death

Every morning in 9th grade I had to walk (or sometimes skate) a mile of hills to get to school. Mornings were hell, reality in the morning came in shifts. Often I would microwave an empty plate or put handsoap on my toothbrush instead of toothpaste. I left my house, like I always do, feeling naucious from the mix of orange juice, the smell of toothpaste, and a sleep deprived headache.

The morning fog is strong this morning. My stomach acts up more than usual and my throat becomes weak and drained. My body convulses and I throw up two streets from my house. I shake it off and keep my pace.

I head down a hill and I see lights glaring through the fog. I want to figure out if it's a police car or an ambulance, anything to give me motivation to keep walking towards school. The fog fades around the ambulance and a smashed car appears. A chinese man is talking to a paramedic, filling out paperwork.

My imagination tries to fill-in a story of what could have happened. This clearly is after the fact, the car and dented garage doors are artifacts of a possible tragedy. As I walk by the car, I see a man inside with his face against the stearing wheel. His skin looks like the color of dried seeweed.

I look at the man a few more seconds then look away. I try and actively avoid seeing things that will traumatize me the rest of my life, but the image never left my head, except during school. I went through school that day, like any other day, forgetting what I saw that morning. When I walked by the spot of the accident on my way home, I thought to myself, "I saw a dead man this morning."

Online for Thursday

Online Describe some vivid physical or emotional experience you’ve had, something like riding on a rollercoaster or being in an accident.

Assignment Change

READ the Stunt Pilot p167
How does Dillard describe him in a way that reflects his skill and daring? Why does she choose these metaphors?
Do you get a clear picture of the metaphor?
What does Dillard learn about the nature of Art?
One incident is out of chronological order (the last); why does Dillard do this?

Marcus Taylor (Codename: Bama)

So what's your name?
"Marcus Taylor"

Where ya from?"
"Elba Alabama"

What's your major?
"History"

What do you want to do with History?
"I want to be a teacher."

What type of history do you like the best?
"World History."

What part of the world in particular?
"Europe?"

All Europe? English history? Spanish history?
"All Europe."

Good same here. What persons do you find interesting in European History?
"Winston Churchill, Hitler, Stalin."

If you could do a biography on anyone who would it be?
"Napoleon."

Good choice! Why Napoleon?
"He's interesting."

How is he interesting?
"Powerful, did a lot of intersting things."

You know he led an expidition to Egypt and ended up uncovering the Rosetta Stone that led to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics?
"Yeah I like interesting things like that. You can find war things anywhere, but stuff like that I like because it's different."

The devil made him do it | The San Diego Union-Tribune

In case you wanted to read more of what I do as a writer, here's a recent review I wrote.The devil made him do it | The San Diego Union-Tribune

500 Words of Evil

Good and Evil Don’t Exist
Thinkers of the past used to wonder, if God is good then why does suffering and pain exists? God must either not be all-powerful or he is not completely good. The idea of the devil was made-up to keep the idea that God is good. Without the devil, God must be both good and evil. If God is both good and evil then how can anyone worship such a schizophrenic being? This must have been the reason why pre-Christian western culture was polytheistic.
Nature exists on the same wavelength as “God”—neither good nor evil. If a mammal, besides humans, felt its children threatened, they would defend instinctively. The essay will later explain why humans are excluded from this. Any right thinking mammal will protect its children. But why? It is because children represent the parent’s genetic make-up. That is not to say that parents think, “the baby has my genes therefore I will protect it.” What is being said is that animals protect their children because their children represent their bloodline.
An old saying used to be, “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” A more important question is “does the chicken control the egg or does the egg control the chicken?” Are animals controlled by their desire to produce offspring and ensure the survival of their bloodline? Or do the animals control the situation and choose to have children? It doesn’t take a scientist to figure out that animals do not have the power to reflect and make decisions based on pre-meditative thought.
If this were applied to humans then we would act the same. If a mother, who owned a house where her infant children played, saw a poisonous snake with its own children, then the mother would act instinctively and kill the snake along with its children. But in reality there is no guarantee. The mother has the ability to reflect upon the situation and look into the eyes of the serpent. Therefore it is this reflective ability that has jeopardized our natural instincts.
Imagine if the mother had looked through the serpents eyes and decided not to kill it. The mother could have placed the snake somewhere else, which would require the danger of moving it. If the mother moved the snake then the snake could come back, she runs that risk. Or the mother could think “the snake needs shelter too, it has its own children” and run a larger risk to her children. The best alternative would be to kill it.
Humans seem to want to put things into white and black, good and evil. Nietzsche noted in his book The Genealogy of Morals that we used to think instinctively what is best for family is best for me. With Judeo-Christianity we have flipped our values into focusing on ourselves instead of on our bloodline. Instead of focusing on having the most children and ensuring their survival, we focused inwardly until we became too focused on ourselves to have children. Today there are many people who do not want children, a strictly modern idea.

The Hermit Crab

Why does my mouth feel so large,
crab crab crab,
My arm, I can't move it,
It's in some form of hard cast,
Maybe I have a hook,
crab crab crab,
My mom is with me,
But where is everyone else,
hermit hermit hermit,
My head, I can't move it,
It's stuck to my shell,
crab crab crab.

*This is a hermit crab lyric essay of my post "surgery."

Woods

This land is my land,
And it's not your land,
I've got a shotgun,
And you don't have one,
Something something,
So please don't take my sunshine away.


In San Francisco someone can't go into a public park without running into a homeless person. There is a park by my house. I took someone up there once because I thought it would be romantic until I found used diapers in a pile and empty slim jim containers decorating the trail.

In Wisconsin people can purchase large acreages for the price of a San Francisco studio. You can go into your land almost certain that there is no trash found just underneath the dirt because it is your land. You know who goes there and who doesn't. If you are lucky, you might even get your own stream. If you are really lucky you might get your own waterfall.

The best location is in a place that you own, surrounded by trees that you own, in an area where nobody goes without your permission except your large family. The place will have to be no more than 30 minutes from a civilized place. Maybe I'll have to get a dog that will eat the wild rabits and a cat that will eat the mice. Maybe I'll somehow get a bunch of fireflies that will light up my path. I'm sure the Amish will sell me a carriage, and I can get horses to pull it and pick up friends with it. I'll still have cars, but they aren't as cool.

Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction

Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction

This is the link to the online magazine discussed in your book.