Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 19: The Year in Zealotry – Part 1 of 2

| October 19, 2015

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions Meaning: One meaning of the phrase is that individuals may have the intention to undertake good actions but nevertheless fail to take action. This inaction may be due to procrastination, laziness or other subversive vice. As such, the saying is an admonishment that a good intention […]

Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 18: A Little Courage

| October 18, 2015

During my six year stint as Emergency Measures Coordinator for the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg, one of my areas of responsibility was overseeing creation and exercising of realistic emergency preparedness plans for two County hospitals, and five nursing homes. Up until then, the writing of emergency plans was always tasked internally to some […]

Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 17: Sharing

| October 17, 2015

My Boxing Day 2013 article, A Long Winter’s Night 2013 – Day 6: A Winter Lesson in Community, told the tale of a blizzard that buried my home town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia when I was about 3 years old, and how the citizenry had no choice but to suspend all matters of commerce and […]

Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 16: The Stranger at the Door

| October 16, 2015

I’ve spoken before of the Hávamál (sayings of the high one), that being one of the poems in The Elder or Poetric Edda, also known as Sæmund’s Edda. For those of us with eyes to see, ears to hear, minds to think, and hearts to feel, the world of now is every bit as dangerous […]

Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 15: Fifty Shades of Grey – I Can’t Masturbate to This

| October 15, 2015

The sudden upswing in popularity of such books as Fifty Shades of Grey is at once unsurprising and inexplicable to me. Unsurprising because the dark side of desire has always had, and always will have its allure, and only leads to a bad end when unstable personalities or Hollywood movie producers become involved. Inexplicable because […]

Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 12: Tooth and Claw

| October 12, 2015

When in this world’s unpleasing youth       Our godlike race began, The longest arm, the sharpest tooth,       Gave man control of man …. ~ Rudyard Kipling, The Benefactors While I will stop short of joining the Esteemed Mr. Kipling in granting the Human species the epithet “godlike”, I admit to absorbing no […]

Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 10: What Died?

| October 10, 2015

We all know what rotting meat smells like, and hence the term, “What died?” has entered the popular lexicon. Just words though, Goode Reader, for there is a quantum leap in the experience that lies between pulling the lid off something found forgotten at the back of the fridge, and the full flower of meaning […]

Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 9: The Urban Death Project

| October 9, 2015

I once convinced a small group of idiots that my birth certificate had an expiry date stamped on it. Don’t try this yourselves though, because my powers of persuasion exceed that of mere mortals, and I’d hate to be responsible for any of you hurting yourselves; at least if I’m not there to watch. Good […]

Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 7: Stonefall

| October 7, 2015

Much of the land that, if I may be so bold, we call “our own”, is covered with a mixture of second growth forest interspersed with a smattering of ancient Pine Trees that have escaped undisturbed by the hand of Man. Walking west from the house, the land rises rapidly over a distance of some […]

Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 4: Death Songs and Promises

| October 4, 2015

Death Songs and Promises By LFM The leaf of Autumn’s bright display Comes bittersweet with tinge of death, Yet shares the bough with wing-ed seed Poised now to glide on hopeful breath. Even as the leaf doth sing Its death song loud in colours bold, Upon the ground joins humble seed, Now scarcely glimpsed amid […]