There seems to be something fitting in the relative importance we give to “firsts” and “lasts”. Though the experiential values in the events between these two standards are uniform, or unique depending on the thing, we do tend to place a special emphasis on the bookends. I suppose that has something to do with our...
Casablanca (the 1942 movie, not the place) is one of my all-time favorite flicks. Since I was a kid I have idolized Humphrey Bogart. Strike that… I have idolized the characters who Humphrey Bogart brought to life. I suppose the credit is probably more deserving to the screenwriters than the actor, but he was...
There are certain mandates in my life. Compared to others they are few, but they form the bedrock of my existence, at least the last 24 years of my existence when I married Sandy. The first is that whenever (and I mean whenever) we get off of an airplane back in Orange County, prior...
“Colonel, thank you for waiting for me.” The LTC glanced up from his book and squinted at me through the dimly lit room. Firelight from the fireplace created shadows across his face and reflected off his round glasses. I could see he was holding a massively annotated Bible on his lap from which he was...
Law school is a wholly loathsome experience. It is frustratingly slow, and in many ways it does not need to be. During the second semester of my second year, I had a sudden realization that there was a “scam” element to this whole enterprise. The actual material needed for comprehension and understanding to be...
Barmaids can be interesting people. Typically they have deep histories and disturbing tattoos. Their presence can be both intoxicating and disquieting, depending on one’s sense of vulnerability at the time. When they don’t speak… or choose not to speak… English things become even a bit more mysterious. A few years ago I found myself on...
1907 was a so-so year. The century was just starting out and, frankly, to a somewhat perilous beginning. The dark forces, that would make the 20th century the bloodiest in human history, were getting their groove on and setting up the architecture to unleash pure hell and misery on Earth. It was also the year that...
Winter air pours through the expansive openings of the tropically decorated bar. It is April in Southern California, but remnants of winter still claw to the shattered promise of a wet season. It was mild in Orange County this year, mild when it came to the weather, if not mild in the passions that...
Oftentimes in marriage we lose ourselves in the identity of the collective. I am not Steven… I am Sandy’s husband, and vice versa. There is a Hallmark card romanticism in this, of course, because it plays off of a basic insecurity that most of us feel: But for our partners, we are lost, uncompleted,...
The Major and I were having breakfast together the other day when he related a discussion he had with his son on the question, “What is life?” Now, like me, the Major was trained by the Jesuits at the University of San Francisco. He was part of the St. Ignatius Institute within USF and,...
