life lessons
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Some legends refuse to stay buried. There are places in this world where history and legend become so intertwined that separating fact from fiction is nearly impossible. Cartagena, Spain, is one of those places. Hidden among its centuries of history is a disturbing tale involving a mysterious coffin, unexplained deaths, a Serbian aristocrat, and a…
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From the Case Files of Steven LaChance Something happened to me recently that upset me. I am talking about really upsetting me. It brought back those memories from the Screaming House so clearly; I felt like I was back there living it all over again. I thought I was over it. I thought I had…
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From the Case Files of Steven LaChance I sat back in the comfortable leather seat of the black sedan, taking in the sights outside the window and feeling the cool air from the AC on my torso. “It is going to be a very hot day here. They say it could be as much as…
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Ten years of this has been enough. Ten years of the hate is enough. Ten years of the division is enough. Ten years of seeing the worst of humanity brought to the surface is enough. I’ve told this story before, but I’m going to tell it again. Within the first half hour of Donald Trump’s…
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Every time I look at Donald Trump or even hear his voice, it tests my moral compass. I’ve always believed that we shouldn’t hate another human being. I’m certainly not going to borrow that tired Christian Nationalist line they love using against gay people like myself: “We don’t hate the person. We hate the sin.”…
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I read something recently that said LGBTQ+ people are going to start going back into the closet. I’m not sure how that is even possible once that door has been opened. It is true that in some ways we come out every time we meet someone new or find ourselves in a new situation. I…
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What do you suppose Christopher Isherwood meant when he wrote these words? “I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking.” The beginning is easy enough to understand, and it is the part most often remembered. I am a camera. Isherwood was a writer observing the world around him, recording the…
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I have debated writing this, but I believe it is our responsibility as writers to record what we observe. This is not meant as a political statement. It is simply an observation from someone who now lives outside the United States and returns several times a year. I read an article today written by someone…
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I’ve been reading a great deal lately about humanity’s place in the universe. The deeper I go, the more fascinated I become by one simple fact. Across thousands of years, civilizations that never knew one another often arrived at remarkably similar questions about reality itself. I’ve spent time in Sumerian texts, Buddhist teachings, Greek philosophy,…
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Can you imagine being a kid, going to church, doing your best to be good, and then hearing something that changes your world? The very thing you were born to be, they are saying, is unholy. That you are unholy. You go to school, so happy to make friends, and that’s when you’re called “fag”…
