When I was in college, around my second year, I didn’t really know what I wanted to pursue. I was a re-entry student. That means that I was in college right after high school, like most folks, and then I quit for a few years. I was offered a good job, or so I thought, at my tender age, as assistant manager for a dime store, at a salary that rivaled my father’s. I was engaged to be married, so I thought it would be a good idea to choose making money instead of earning a degree. Besides, I was bored with school. So worked hard and built a life with my wife and kids. I worked hard and became a...

Many people have problems with the church in America, in the world, for that matter. I cannot blame them. The church has been responsible for any number of evils on this planet. The church has been responsible for a great deal of suffering and sorrow. The church has its own sins, in what she has done, and in what she has failed to do. And when we hear the words of the many that claim to speak for the church, as we have in these recent past few days, I can only feel sadness for the people who will turn away from the teachings of Jesus, because of the ramblings of a few idiots. The beauty of the...

Chapter One–Aa After more than twenty years in homicide, it was surprising that Detective Peter Stone would be unprepared for what he was about to encounter.  He had seen many, many tableaus of death and destruction before.  He had seen plenty of carnage, blood and gore and the remnants of terror.  There was none of that here.  Here, the victims sat, looking almost peaceful, around the kitchen table, almost as if they had all fallen asleep at dinner, except there were no table settings, no food, no clues to what exactly had happened, each bound with duct tape to the chair where the final...

One Saturday, Sam and Dave were out playing a round of golf.  As they were approaching the 9th hole, Sam looked out across to green to see a funeral procession going by on the street next to the golf course.  Sam stood still, took off his hat, and placed it over his heart.  There he stood, silently until the procession drove past.  Then he continued his play. Dave said, “Gee, Sam.  That was mighty nice and respectful of you to stop your play like that out of respect for that funeral procession.” “Well,” Sam said, “I was married to her for thirty-two years.  She deserves that much.” You...

I read a very interesting article in the newspaper the other day.  At first, it gave me a little hope.  Given a survey, a full 89% of the young people questioned felt that being a good person was more important than having money.  There was one problem, however.  It seems that a third of those same young people had stolen from their parents within the year.  One fifth had stolen from a store.  One fifth admitted stealing from a friend. A full 69% confessed to cheating on a test in school within the month and 90% had admitted lying to a parent about something significant within the last month. ...

I was teaching my kung fu class the other day working with one of the students.  He was having a difficult time with one of the movements I’d shown him a few weeks earlier.  He just wasn’t getting it.  I told him to just move naturally.  “You can tell when you’re moving correctly,” I told him, “It just feels right.  It’s totally natural.  When you feel off balance, when you feel awkward, it’s a sign you’re doing it wrong.”  As children, we move naturally, and then, somehow, we forget how to move, how to breathe. And then I asked him if he practiced every day.  He answered...

I have always been interested in science. Of course I wasn’t interested enough to major in physics or anything. I’m way too lazy to do that. I may be crazy, but I’m not stupid. That much math would have made my brain implode. Still, I found it interesting enough to read many books and essays on the subject. And you can’t be interested in astronomy without at least a passing knowledge of physics if you want to understand anything. So when my son brought home a science magazine back when he was in high school many years ago and I saw there was an article about current theories in physics,...

I can think back to a time when times were really bad for me. My wife had asked me to leave my home and kids and I found myself living in a tiny trailer in Hawthorne, and not the nice part of Hawthorne either. I was still disabled and living on California Disability Insurance. My employer had fired me because my back was hurt and they didn’t want the potential insurance claims from a re-injury. I was broke all the time. I had bills to pay. I was fat because I was not able to get out and get any exercise, and because I was so damn depressed. I had lost everything. I really only had one friend...

Religious imagery turns a lot of people off, I think. I mean, here we are in the 21st century, having gone to the moon, having seen the earth from outer space, having explored the realm of string theory, and then thinking of the deity as a blue-skinned woman with many, many arms, if you happen to be Hindu. Those two don’t seem to go together so well. It’s hard to think of yourself as a rational citizen of an earth, enlightened by science, and believing in those ancient images of winged angels and such. At least I know that I was, in my youth, put off by the Hare Krishna followers who appeared...

I’ve seen some pretty interesting weight-loss products in my time. They all promise to help you lose a lot of weight in a short time, as much as a pound a day. There are pills and shakes and special belts and shorts. There are special “exercise” machines that all promise to help you shed the pounds with little or no effort (results may vary). However, the strangest product I ever saw advertised for weight loss was something you were supposed to add to your bath water. Just put the product in the bath and then watch the fat go right down the drain! Some people will believe anything. But I...