Moving Forward and Looking Ahead

I don’t often look straight ahead while I drive.

I know, I know. That’s a pretty awful thing to claim, especially on a public forum like that internet. But I’m not saying I drive dangerously or anything. In fact, what I’m talking about is probably something you do too. Think about it: how much of your driving time do you actually spend staring straight ahead? You’re constantly checking rear and side view mirrors and blind spots and making yourself aware of your surroundings. You’d actually be behaving much more recklessly if you never took your eyes off of the road ahead of you.

So I’m not often staring straight ahead. I’m looking around, and checking mirrors and blind spots and all of that. And because of that, in my almost 25 years of life, I’ve only ever had one minor fender-bender that wasn’t my fault.

Nearly 25 years of life. That doesn’t seem right. Continue reading “Moving Forward and Looking Ahead”

It Takes A Man To Live

“….it takes a woman to make him compromise.”

This Lumineers lyric always made me chuckle. I thought it was a funny look at how women have to control their men or something like that. Like men go out and do all of this crazy stuff but it takes a woman to stop him from destroying himself. Or, in a more negative sense, maybe that a man can go out and accomplish great things, but a home life prevents him from turning his concerns elsewhere.

I’m not really sure what I interpreted the line to mean, really, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. When I really looked at the entire verse, it became much more clear that it wasn’t a humorous yet negative look at a woman, but rather a celebration of being consumed by a relationship:

“So now I think that I could
Love you back
And I hope it’s not too late cause you’re so attractive
And the way you move
I won’t close my eyes
It takes a man to live
It takes a woman to make him compromise” Continue reading “It Takes A Man To Live”

My Neighborhood Superhero

Humans need heroes. In ancient times, we invented myths involving great champions who defended good and battled evil. I guess that’s before the Greeks came along and invented myths of gods who just enjoyed drinking and fighting and fornicating, though.

For whatever reason, modern people think they’re above heroes. There’s no room for fun myths when science and logic must be king. Heck, people even debate these days whether they want their children to believe in Santa Claus. I still believe in Santa Claus, but that’s because I never progressed past a certain age. However, our love of heroes still lingers, despite what our love of logic and reason may dictate.

These days, though, we translate our idea of heroes into strictly fictional stories about superhumans. People with greater power than our own. The Dark Knight trilogy and the huge commercial success of The Avengers movie recently proved that we don’t really grow up when we get older, we just need our stories to be more unbelievable. I am thankful, though, that in these dark times when we don’t believe in heroes, I have one in my very neighborhood keeping us all safe. I have an actual superhero, standing watch over the small area I call home.

I have a neighborhood superhero, and his name is Intersection Dog. Continue reading “My Neighborhood Superhero”

December 25th

This is the final chapter of a story entitled The Other One. To start at the beginning, click here. Thank you so very much for reading.

“You’re late! ;)”

There wasn’t a chance I would ever understand why Jenn insisted on ending every text message with some sort of smiley face. There also wasn’t a chance she would ever stop doing it, so I guess I just had to live with it. Plus, I wasn’t late. I had just pulled up to her place to pick her up. We weren’t late quite yet, but the rest of my family had already gathered at my parent’s house so we were certainly holding things up.

Jenn got in the car and greeted me with a quick kiss on the cheek. As she held my hand, the rock on her ring finger glistened in the sunlight. It would, of course, be a sunny and warm Christmas here in Manchester, Mississippi. I’m not sure we were capable of having any other kind of weather. Continue reading “December 25th”