Famished Writer

I do not have a problem with being unique, or should I say not being unique. I mean, I suspect beyond a hunch that I am exactly like many people-most people even-but not all people in more than a handful of ways. I like the uniqueness of others. I am not unique though. I am like many people that are as just different as I am. “I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.” Harper Lee Americans love sugar, we even coat our fondest words with it. And fat, we love to chew our fat too. It seems most of us will eat whatever is placed in front of us. I lived in Texas briefly and many, many men (and a few women) called me ‘Sugar’ or ‘Hon’ or ‘Doll’, I only took personal offense with ‘Sugar’ and actually adopted the habit of saying ‘Hon’. Not many people say ‘Hon’ in California, I guess that’s different. Californians don’t actually say ‘DUDE’, not all Californians are actors, athletes, hippies or hobos although we do have these citizens. Most Californians say, ‘it’s all good’ or ‘no wor...

Image By Roberto Hoyos (http://throwboy.com/images/icons/Polaroid_fd01.png) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons. I t’s no secret American’s are obsessed with their “things”, we invented hoarding. In fact, if you ask Donald Trump, he’ll tell you we invented “things” themselves. Most Americans will also agree that there are certain “things” that are more “Uh-mare-kun” than others; like Coca Cola, Levis, Elvis, Apple Pie and baseball (but don’t mean to blow your blimp-those last two are really adaptations of other nations traditions). Nothing is (capital t) Truly more American than the starving artist. No, is that Parisian? Okay, nothing is more American than the dejected, rejected (aka self-employed middle class) ‘creator’ of anything. Creating is hard in this country. And while I particularly love salmon, I am sick of the thought of all this fighting upstream is just to end up where I started and die. No, persistence doesn’t always “pay off” in cash, but it is the key to happiness, es...

We have all had those days that start with an eerie feeling from the time the sunrises, only to play itself out as a day from "Twilight Zone". The October Fall air was crisp and the sun shone brightly this morning as I began my morning ritual of making breakfasts and lunches for my children. Flipping on the news as a voice of company as usual I was informed a "Sig Alert" on the nearby freeway, which means the traffic always overflows onto our street. I had no idea what I was in for in the simple task of getting my kids to school on time, both schools being less than 2 miles away. A Tractor trailer truck had Jack knifed causing two of the four lanes on the Interstate to close for morning rush hour traffic. Hearing the constant thump of news helicopters should have been a loud enough indicator. Thankfully my son loves to be early to school and because of this he made it on time, since he would have had a conniption fit considering his obsession with time (whew!). I ha...