Nonfiction
Follow the Red Dirt Road: Some Thoughts on Being a Southern Writer
My friend, colleague, and fellow native Alabamian, Gary Walker, wrote an excellent USR essay reflecting on being a writer who just happens to be from the South. Despite others’ expectations that he write about red dirt, hunting, fishing, football, the land, and the people, Gary confessed that he doesn’t really feel motivated to write about
Flutes in History
Flutes are the oldest instrument in the world. Hollowed bird bones, with holes cut for tone changes, have been found in archaeological sites as old as 40,000 years. Early man may have heard wind whistling across the tops of reeds and designed an instrument that produced the same sound. Early flutes were played vertically, with
Ten Reasons to Pay It Forward
To pay it forward means that instead of paying someone back for a good deed, you do a good deed for someone else. Maybe you’ll surrender your first-place position in a long line at the 7-Eleven when someone behind you is in a hurry. On a rainy day, you might hand an umbrella to someone
Everything Does Not Happen for a Reason
Everything does not happen for a reason. The notion that it does is a self-centered human fantasy based on limited, exclusionary knowledge. It helps people deal with immense uncertainties beyond their powers of perception. They’re staggering through life blind to their actual nature. The concept of “a reason” only exists for humans. When you remove
Vacant Lots: A Butterfly Hunter Considers the Sacred
The simplest definition of “sacred” in the Oxford English Dictionary has always seemed to me to be “set apart,” and that’s probably why I’ve never felt very happy with the word. I’ve never much liked the idea of things being “set apart.” Somehow, in my staunchly Republican family, I acquired a stubborn egalitarianism. But I
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Novels and Collected Works
Be Careful of Little Lives
Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways and be wise: Which, having no chief, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, [and] gathereth her food in the harvest. –Proverbs 6:6-6:8 Scripture praises ants, children are mesmerized by them, and yet ants in the garden are so commonplace as to be easily
Sometimes in my dreams
Sometimes in my dreams, I have interactions with people who no longer play a role in my waking life, like old friends, relatives, and former lovers. Some of them have passed away and are back for a visit. There’s always a strong telepathic element with whomever I encounter. Now and then, I feel tasked to
Some Advice for Professors Everywhere
Following is some advice for professors everywhere that should serve as a useful reminder. I offer it with respect and good intentions, knowing full well that we don’t always live up to these standards. Still, it never hurts to try. Check your ego at the door. Earning an advanced degree and securing part- or full-time
D-Day, 1944: A Black Veteran Remembers
We have lost one more World War II veteran. Richard L. Walker, born May 7, 1924, passed away on October 26, 2020. Son of William Walker, M.D., one of the first black physicians in Colorado Springs, Richard walked the body-strewn Normandy beach with his battalion on a forced march to Cherbourg shortly after D Day,
The Conscience of a Conservative
“Of course, you’re very conservative” Both sides of my family were lifelong Republicans, and approached their lives conservatively. By that I mean that they valued the contributions of the past to their current happiness, they took care to preserve their tools and other possessions (rather than throwing them out and buying new ones), they paid