Simpleigh

A good story has the power to do a lot of things; it can convict, transform, empower, and challenge. Well-told-meaningful-stories have incited revolutions, discredited deep seated ideologies, and shaped history as we know it. And when you hear a good story, it stays with you.  My friends will tell you, I have a great memory for stories. I can recall minute details, characters names, and dialogue at the drop of a hat.  Ask me what 7 x 9 is, and I'll need a second to think  (or take my shoes off...) ; but mention a scene from  any  Adam Sandler movie and I WILL quote back to you  (in a less-than-accurate Sandler impression) every line. Would I like to be one of those people who has practical and marketable skills? Hell yes. Unfortunately, I was blessed with the not-so-necessary gift of movie, music, and tv trivia. Unintentionally, stories will imprint themselves in the deepest regions of my psyche. For years they will lie dormant —unt...

Rewind to a week ago: I am at orientation for my new job, and about to watch two hours worth of new-trainee informational videos.   I hate these cheesy things.... Everyone is  way  too excited to be at work. They never use real employees either, always actors. Maybe they're afraid a real employee would snap mid way through and tell the un-expecting newbies how it really is! No, they're always a group of well groomed theater students, anxious to play the role of "average-working-stiff Joe".  I get the sense from these videos that job training production companies took a real hit after 99': since none of them seem to take place after that year. Everyone's always named "Chris", "Brittany" or "Ryan" - those really overused day time television names popularized in that era. Plus, you can tell they're just on the cusp of being required  to include minorities in every representation of corporate life.  "Hi, I'm...

In college I became a sprinter.  Unlike more motivated people, I became a sprinter out of necessity.  Freshman year may have been the only year in which I was a standard walker. After that, the odds of seeing me early for a class was equivalent to the likelihood of Elizabeth Taylor settling down with one man: rare, and hardly conceivable.  And that is the short version of how I came to own my first pair of Nike sneakers.  Until one day I decided to make myself show up early for classes. But there was a problem: I realized running to class rid me of all my nervous energy. Now I wasn't sure what to do with myself during those in-between moments. Around the same time,  I found an old beaded bracelet, hiding under a shelf in my room. It's one of those possessions you've always noticed, but whose origins you've never questioned. After its discovery, I decided to fasten it to my key chain as to save it from being one more random...

  When I was 17, my first dog died. Her name was Jenny, as in that old  Little Richard song "Ooh Jenny Jenny, won't you come home with me!"  She was an English Springer Spaniel, if you haven't heard of them you should,  they're beautiful dogs. Practically every year they win the best breed award in the West Minster Kennel Club dog show. Not only are they cute, but they are smart, love water, hunt birds, and barley shed.  I got Jenny when I was five, living in New Hampshire. She was the last girl in her litter. I can still remember my mom on the phone with the breeder, asking if I wanted a boy or a girl. For a moment there was hesitation, because I thought it was sad none of the boys were getting adopted. But I knew I wanted a girl. So I got the last one. That was it, she was the love of my life. My Jenny. Over the next 11-12 years, she sat by me through elementary all the way to high school, a long bitter divorce, three moves, and other cou...

Three people were arguing about what profession was used first in the bible. "The Surgeon said, "The medical profession was used first when God took a rib from Adam and made Eve. The Engineer said, "No, engineering was used first. Just think of the engineering job it took to create the world out of chaos. The Politician said, "You would have nothing if we didn't create chaos in the beginning." Politics and religion, two subjects you're supposed to avoid in polite company. Clearly these subjects were banned because of the passionate arguments they begin.  Which is why in the US we  have a separation between church and state. But realistically, how separate are they? Seems to me, every election someone is being chastised for how "Christian" or "Unchristian" they are. Candidates visit bible colleges and wear religious symbolism on their lapels. In debates, candidates make sweeping statements about...