Despair is a Mormon's mother.

With one comes three; you've got to lean on it to keep that down.

Truth is, some things you can't lie about, unless you start early.

Do it mechanically, then do it good. Grow it after the bones are built out, then it’s safer to fill in the colors. 

Or do you let it grow, gnarled or twisted but free as it comes?

Is the end result worth the cost of the process? Is the reverse?

"Why's the turkey smell like that?" my daughter asked me.

I could either answer or continue to hold back my tears. Later I blamed the onions I was cutting.

The sign said to brine the damn thing for two days. How was I supposed to know pickle juice would be this caustic?...

There's not always something to say when you first put pen to paper, finger to keyboard. But the act of it, the muscle memory kicks in. If I'd been lacquered that day, or been knackered that day, it's a focal point to stream some of this emotion into a more...

Water like a harsh word battered my car window. I didn't know it yet but that would be the last time I'd remember driving in the rain as a happy memory. The music you play sounds richer, like it's insulated from the outside world that can just as quickly lead...

"Over time, the lines cross, and you become something you hadn't ever dreamed of. Probably didn't know of, back then, and likely a near stark-opposite of what you'd really known, deep in your bones, that you'd become."
So what, I said, wandering further through the museum.
If we...

"There is no news today," the high-collared man with the polite blue suit and lightly-tamed curls said through the television. He straightened his sheaf of papers, gave a distant smile, and got up from the desk. We didn't see him again that day.
Tea was on, so we had a cup....

I sell rugs. Rugs and specialized carpets.

Family business, you see. Funny, all that talk people spout about keeping a roof over their heads. Well sure, once that's covered, I don't want mine padding about on splinters all day, do I? I build my house from the ground up, same as...

The walls were painted a speckled blue. Funny thing about speckles is they mask their own decay. An old man sat at the window table meant for two. He was halfway through both a butter croissant and the Sunday crossword.

Outside the trees had long since started to don their winter...

Tonight we're making borscht. 
Peel the beets and grate them up, and throw them in a pot, over there. There's potatoes in water so they don't brown because we cut them up already. Prep work is best not slept (on) work.
Someone put that in a cookbook.
...