Home > Work > An Enigmatic Escape: A Trilogy
1 " I had always been a boy in this place, and many of the trees and rocks and streams had been old men when I knew them. Some had died. All had changed. I knew that. I had changed the most. "
― Dan Groat , An Enigmatic Escape: A Trilogy
2 " The world bein’ so small ain’t always a good thing for those of us who ain’t searchin’ for new and different stuff. "
3 " One of the worst things I’ve learned about getting older is that there seems to be more change that you don’t like than there was when you were younger and you can’t do nothin’ about it. "
4 " Does the plain, simple beauty of life get buried under society’s so-called required daily activities or is that just true of me? No, I know I’m not alone in that feeling. We all get caught up in the making and spending of money. I know it’s not just me. "
5 " Just make sure the day doesn’t pass without sayin’ what’s in your heart. Sometimes you pass up those chances and they’re gone forever. "
6 " Our bird of hope was being denied the altitude it sought, just free enough to fly dangerously close to the reality of the treetops. "
7 " Sometimes when the three of us were together on our own, we would have a good time. I was pretty young, but sometimes we would go off in the woods and build forts and fight Indians and I think things were about as close to fine as they ever got right then during those times. In the woods. No parents. No yelling. "
8 " As an adult I had mastered the art of looking without seeing and listening without hearing and eating without tasting and maybe even existing without living. "
9 " It’s a funny thing, one day you’re living and the next day you’re not sometimes, whether you have plans or not. Wishes and wants get trumped by the reaper every time. I don’t even know if I would want a warning if it was my time. I think I’d rather be surprised. "
10 " Sometimes, you need to spit stuff out in words to get it better arranged in your head. I figure if you never talk about it, it just picks its own spot and lays there and festers. "
11 " The bones of the oak tree that had stood by the spring branch during my youth were scattered about the ground, pieces of the skeleton of a majestic life that had passed while I was off growing up and old. "
12 " What a wonderful sadness to miss the one you have loved forever, it seems, and know that she is waiting at home. "
13 " Memories with laughter are the best ones to keep. "
14 " It’s as close to true freedom as I have come. Not freedom of, but freedom from; freedom from the debris of life that piles up and forces us to dig and dig for our original self, who we were once upon a time, innocent and wonderfully naïve, as authentically pure as a human can be. "
15 " I assumed that looking back reminded older guys of what they had shot at and missed, the what-ifs, the good memories, the bad, the people left behind, the people who moved on. "
16 " I don’t know how a reporter would ever understand a politician. Your job is supposed to be about finding the truth and enlightening people. Right? A politician’s job is about hiding the truth and fooling people. Right? You want us to be better informed so we get smarter. They think we’re dumb and it’s to their advantage to keep us that way. "
17 " How do we keep convincing young people to die in fights they didn’t start for reasons we’re too devious to tell the truth about? It’s way too easy for governments to spend other people’s blood. Maybe only the sons and daughters of those who declare the wars should be allowed to fight and die. "
18 " Back home. What wonderful words. What a wonderful place. "
19 " My world was very limited in size and experience. Small things took on extra importance, at least to a child. "
20 " As I have aged, I’ve been lucky never to reach old. Old is always at least five or ten years beyond my current calendar stage. "
