I'm a single dad and a writer -- both a journalist and an author for young readers on the march. I write books that chronicle their potential journey across that dread verge into the near future...

I like to take walks when I can. And hang out with my own two sons. It strikes me that it might a good time to learn how to grow a lot of one's own food.

I think the definitions of "community" are going to get radically redefined in the years ahead -- as the economy and the planet change, and the cheap energy (for those far-flung commutes) is no longer... cheap.

So then -- what about a "community" of two partners? Friends? Types that might ostensibly meet on a site like this?

(However, as time goes on, it occurs to me that this whole online thing is probably an impossible milieu on/with which to meet someone. You can't just "meet cute" as in the movies -- there seems to be some expectation of "meeting total," as it were.

In other words, forging a working relationship - even a good series of dates -- can be enough of a challenge in the best of times; even when the money is there, and the weather's not shifting, and people aren't running scared all over the place, there are still one's own... demons, yes? In the room, there, with the two of you? Of us?

So: In a vain attempt to guard against that, everyone runs around --virtually speaking -- looking for the *exact perfect profile* with which to jibe, to match with, to hook-up with, online. The one that, somehow, makes that first date "safe," and seems to promise so much more.

What the practical effect of this is, really, is that we're all just staying home reading profiles, trying to guard against "getting hurt," but not really meeting anyone at all, yes?

End of sidebar soapbox)

One other thing: Came across this post from a guy in his mid-60's, writing about what he learned having two heart attacks in his 50's, as he and his wife looked back at their lives together: "Now, we both regret that we didn't make love about three times as often as we could have when we were young. While we were each trying to prove how right we were to each other, we weren't loving each other nearly as much as we could have back in those days when we were young, beautiful and full of energy. Ah, the foolishness of youth."

Do any of us really have passion in our lives, anymore? (There's an absolute intensity that comes from raising kids, but that's different)). Or are we all just staring at our computer screens?

Well, enough rumination, eh? Thanks for reading.

Well, see above. I write. I go different places to talk about writing. I throw baseballs around. I contemplate different kinds of mulches in the backyard. I walk the dog.

Why does this sound like James Earl Jones talking to Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams?

Finding stories. Telling them. Raising boys.

That would depend on the context they're meeting me in, que no?

"One Hundred Years of Solitude," "Fup," "Yellow Eyes," "California Bloodstock." "The Magic Journey," "Lost in the Cosmos." Bunches more. Movies? "Chinatown," "2001," "The Devils," "Casablanca," "Once Upon a Time in the West," "The Wild Bunch," "Nothing But a Man." Did I already say "bunches more?"

Food wise, you can never go wrong with a good pot of soup.

And tube-wise, I would like to see more of "Slings and Arrows."

My sons, of course, but they're not "things." The friendships I've developed over the years. The bonds with certain places. The occasional cigar and glass of whiskey?

And often, on internet sites, one wants to include "the internet," and it's true, much of my communication and even revenue occurs on/with it. But what happens to our lives when there might not be an internet?

Dislocation in unknowable times.

well, with my boys, usually.

I really like a woman's lips.

You're a single mom, or very empathic to single dads!