Angels in the park

The above image is very close in appearance to what I experienced at a beautiful cemetery park several years ago. I’d taken walks there often on the trails between and around the gravestones, enjoying the quiet and relative isolation, away from the hustle and bustle of society. During one of my walks, I heard “someone” following behind me, their footsteps upon the fallen leaves alerting me to their presence.

Wherever and whenever I moved, the footsteps followed me. I was afraid, filled with fear, thinking I was being stalked where nobody could help me, alone in the middle of a big cemetery close to dusk. However, when I finally gathered the courage to turn and look, the most beautiful two deer were standing in front of me, their innocent eyes staring into mine.

They’d been following me, two angelic stalkers waiting for me to turn and look at them. They remained in place for a few minutes, peering deep into what felt like my soul. I smiled with tears of joy, telling them how beautiful they are and thanking them for visiting me, when I most needed it. And then they looked at one another and ran off together, into the trees surrounding the park, as if being called to some other place where someone else needed them.

Those few minutes felt like a special communion I shared with two angels. A moment I will never forget.

Image: “Angels in the park”

Created by: David M. Rubin & Meta AI

Games we play

“You can’t win. You can’t break even. You can’t even quit the game.”
~ Ginsberg’s Theorems, Murphy’s Law

If every play or move were perfectly executed under perfect, textbook conditions, there would be no game, no reason to play and compete. The point of the game is for one player to outsmart or outplay the other, and this can’t happen if both players play perfectly all the time, making perfect decisions within perfect opportunities, without imperfect obstacles.

Often, I mention the absence of a level playing field, but does life provide such a thing? After putting some thought into this, I conclude that level playing fields don’t exist. We’re always attempting to outplay, defend against, or control a so-called opponent or adversary.

In works of fiction, there are traditionally 7 possible core conflicts/games, one or two of them comprising a specific work, including Character vs. Character, Character vs. Society, Character vs. Nature, Character vs. Technology, Character vs. Supernatural, Character vs. Fate, and Character vs. Self. I mention these, as they seem to cover the entire range of possible conflicts/games that influence our lives in the real world. Although, I think there should be an eighth possible conflict/game: Character vs. God.

Which one, two, or three of these exert(s) the most influence over your life?

Endless search

In this era of infinite options, many of us don’t stay committed to anything or anyone for long, lured by a never-ending search for an ideal of fulfilment or love that doesn’t exist, a mindset that the perfect option is around the corner, if one continues the search a little longer.

Yet, a little longer often lasts a lifetime, until the realization that “something” good, the perfect imperfection, was once at the doorstep knocking on one’s door, but missed or discarded while being too busy searching for that elusive ideal, dangled by a society promoting the dopamine rush of endless movement towards a fantasy that has no basis in reality, forever elusive. And so one never grows roots into a time, place or relationship; never reaching the depths of soulful connection to anything or anyone, including oneself.

Games at Dawn

She smiles at my gamesmanship, all the while plotting my defeat in the rising light of dawn. Two beautiful smiles upon me. Win or lose, I win.

Joyce Carol Oates

I recently came across this book in the biography section of my local bookstore, promptly purchasing it. Joyce Carol Oates is one the world’s most prolific and accomplished writers, having written works of fiction, poetry, plays, and numerous collections of nonfiction and essays, many of which deal with important humanitarian themes. She’s received many awards for her work, including “The National Humanities Medal,” awarded to her by President Obama in 2010.

The book pictured here is a collection of letters she’d written to her biographer from 1975 to 2006. Just like her fiction and essays, her letters are like works of literature, albeit casual and personal as well, including insights into her ideas about writing, thoughts about her published works and works in progress, impressions of other writers and their works, and a variety of other topics, some personal and some about the world at large.

Joyce continues to publish new works and is an active contributor on Twitter (x). I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with her several times on Twitter and discovering that she quoted a few of my own commentaries, which was a thrill for me.

I’m looking forward to reading her collection of letters. I have an interest in epistolary writing, which is a fancy term for letter writing. Epistolary works are sometimes fictional, other times actual correspondences. I’ve previously attempted epistolary writing in the form of fiction, and it worked out well at the time. I’m interested in pursuing this further, as it seems to fit my style of writing, or one of my styles.