When I was a young lad long ago in the bland, faceless, smugly prosperous America of the 1950s, I had an itch to be somewhere else. As I heard the expression put first on the TV series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, I would indulge myself regularly in a game called “Anywhere but Here.” The Germans have a beautiful word for it: Wanderlust.
But … Read the rest
Content 21+ In the vast expanse of human history, one concept has persisted as a pernicious toxin infecting the minds of the masses: hope. Like a seductive siren, it lulls individuals into a false sense of security, promising salvation and deliverance from the trials of existence. Yet, upon closer inspection, hope reveals itself to be nothing more than a mirage, a cruel deception that shackles humanity to a cycle of … Read the rest
Second part. First part is here.
On 28 August, 1963, I came home from somewhere one mid-afternoon. The new school year hadn't started, so the early part of the day remains a blank. Except that I was in Charleston, West Virginia, and we lived in a big ramshackle white house at the end of a dead-end street way up in the hills.
When I walked through the door, our … Read the rest
