If we could read our minds, a picture I’d share with you would connect our love with images we would treasure, secret images we would frame with wisps of joy, would treat as kisses only we could tell have meaning, their focus, essential, dear.
Back on December 5th, 2025, I awoke to a minus-1 inch snow after the weatherman had called for a couple of inches the day before. It wasn’t enough to really cover anything; just a trace, kind of like one of those trace elements listed on the Periodic Table of Elements, of which of each, there... Read More
“Hank Benson, why are you accompanying me on a client call?” Karma-Lita floored the gas pedal. Her fingers drummed the steering wheel. She shot an unfriendly look at the man in the passenger seat, clutching his seatbelt with one hand and the handgrip above the window with the other. “Karma-Lita, you are a long-term employee... Read More
When Mike Wiley takes the stage at Piedmont Arts in Martinsville on March 26, he won’t just be performing a one-man show about baseball legend Jackie Robinson. He’ll be coming home. A Roanoke native, Wiley has spent decades transforming historical narratives into visceral theatrical experiences. For him, the stage has never been merely a platform... Read More
Contentment pervades those parts of me I can’t reach, can’t touch unless I ride deep breaths into my quiet heart or my relaxing mind when it slips into a neutral channel where pressure never can invade. There, I find peace, its wellspring.
Even though our winters might not be what they once were, especially the ones remembered by us “Boomers” of the 1950s and 60s, the fact that all of the leaves have fallen and been sucked up by the “great vacuums” of Danville’s department of public works by January is a sure indicator that Nature is... Read More
(Scene: Karma-Lita is a Karma Delivery Professional. Her personal motto is “Get karma’d.” Today she’s carrying a big book and delivering karma to George, an unsuspecting victim who works the night shift.) Karma-Lita (singing it out): Ring-a-ding-ding in there, Apartment 2-C! It’s not nice to keep Karma-Lita waiting in the hallway! Open the door and... Read More
Some people choose writing. For Barry Koplen, writing chose him. “It was a covenant,” Koplen explains, describing the inexplicable pull he felt toward the written word since childhood. “I simply could not disregard it.” Yet for decades, he couldn’t understand why. While other kids enjoyed football and crafts, young Barry found equal joy in putting... Read More
Not only a typeface, but also a massive gesture, daunting to ignore, revealing as a Christmas tree hung from buildings indicates significant steps toward its completion. Too, a daring kiss, a stolen embrace, new love.
Brokeback Mountain (9/10 Rating) Released December 9, 2005 (Limited) For rent/purchase on all major platforms. Genre: Contemporary Western, Period Drama, Tragic Romance R: Sexuality, nudity, language, and some violence 2h 14m Watching films from the early 2000s has reminded me how much American culture has changed in such a short period of time, but... Read More
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