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
Ten Reasons to Donate to Local Organizations and Thrift Stores
Though there are some national organizations that perform phenomenal services to those in need, USR would like to offer some reasons to donate within your community areas. When you donate directly to local charities, your items and money stay in and serve your community. The money local charities donate to and the people they clothe, feed, and
Ten Reasons to Shop at Your Local Farmers Market
Here are ten reasons to shop at your local farmers market. 1. Fresh Produce Yes, this seems to be a no-brainer, but most produce you will find in your local supermarket has traveled hundreds or thousands of miles before it arrives in the produce section. In order for the fruits and vegetables to appear fresh
Ten Reasons to Travel
“The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of Eternal Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to behold the hundred universes that each of them beholds, that each of them is.” Marcel Proust, Remembrance of
Ten Reasons to Write Regularly
In “Why I Continue To Write: Thirty-five years after Last Exit to Brooklyn,” Hubert Selby Jr. says of his youth, I went into the hospital in 1946, with advanced tuberculosis, and altogether I spent three and a half years in the hospital. By the time I got out I had had 10 ribs removed, one
Ten Reasons to Exercise Regularly
Most people generally understand the significance of exercise. Still, listing some of its specific benefits clarifies why exercise improves everyone’s quality of life. 1. Working out increases your lifespan. American life expectancy is 78.6 years. Countries like Slovenia have surpassed us in this regard due to Americans making poor lifestyle choices. Among other things, exercise reduces