I think what you notice most when you haven’t been home in a while is how much the trees have grown around your memories.

And I suppose tapes are a desperate attempt to steal something from Death's suitcase.

There is no fair in life and death. If it were, no good men would die young.

Young men go to war. Sometimes because they have to, sometimes because they want to. Always, they feel they are supposed to. This comes from the sad, layered stories of life, which over the centuries have seen courage confused with picking up arms, and cowardice confused with laying them down.

Because when the world quiets to the sound of your own breathing, we all want the same things: comfort, love, and a peaceful heart.

The years after graduation hardened me into someone quite different from the strutting graduate who left campus that day headed for New York city, ready to offer the world his talent. The world, I discovered. was not all that interested.

For years I wrote in my basement. More recently I graduated to one floor above, an office with all my books and music and - ta da! - a window.