I used to pray with sincerity and faith. Now that I have ‘outgrown’ that faith, the decision is how to respond to an offer to pray for me.

Love has trouble shining through the blinding weight of billowing dark agony. Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness can compound their suffering. If you care about such a person, discover the troubles that weigh them down and help to lighten their loads.

Now that’s what you want a futurist for - for those serendipitous moments when preparation, awareness, and opportunity reveal the cusp of tipping points that others barely feel sliding beneath them.

“Jihad” is an Arabic word that literally means “effort” or “struggle.” In use, jihad is applied primarily to a personal struggle to live in virtuous faith and a fight against Satan (the “greater jihads) with struggles against an open enemy considered “the lesser jihad.” Compare Romans 7:23.

George Monbiot makes the case for a new unifying story of altruistic communities of interest taking responsibility for shared resources rather than allowing private interests to profit exclusively from their exploitation.

The light you seek is not always where you are looking or where you are accustomed to looking in the past. Staunch mental rigidity may blind you to the next lesson God sends your way. Don’t forget to look within new problems for a light shining on the key to their solution.

A catching-up letter to an old high school friend. A telling of the prime of my adult life.

A Migrant Story gives a sympathetic inside-the-family telling of life on the road and in the fields; of holding family all the dearer while still wanting to fit in at every new place. TIMELY and IMPORTANT. Written by my wife, Dianna Satterlee

A Heartwarming poem in which a small child successfully negotiates for a visit to Grandma’s house and makes discoveries about him/her-self and about Grandma. Told in a regular lilting verse that your child will ask to have read to them again and again.

This is an (almost completely) true story about old people in love. It is given a stream-of-consciousness treatment that reflects the tender tedium of elder care. It is only right to tell you up front that, by the end, most early readers wanted to reach for a tissue and a good friend.

SHORT STORY - A young couple find that their life together is becoming predictable. Is that a bad thing?

SHORT STORY - The tensions between happily married couples can boil over. Sometimes, you just have to ask, "Did I really say that out loud?" 

SCIENCE FICTION - What if the development of humans, and our planet, was being intensely observed and regularly adjusted by aliens? What changes would be in our greatest common good? What would the progress report to senior managers look like?

Looking for the ideal place to live, our hero discovers that there is trouble in paradise. It’s too obviously autobiographical to call it a short story.

POEM - A story of bigotry and bullying told, disconcertingly, in a precise "Dr. Seuss" cadence. This was actually written several years before the 2012 mass-shooting at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin.

A poem of the “police action” in Vietnam. Also a disturbing piece. Note: contains violent action… and some profanity. This is mean stuff for grownups. Even the ending line of every stanza shatters the cadence and rhyme of what came before.

SHORT STORY - Another fable of conservative values. What happens if a culture takes the idea of naming kids after both of their parents and makes it a hard-and-fast tradition?

SHORT STORY - My first wife used to claim that "No good deed goes unpunished." Maybe she was right. A seasoned warrior's obviously-skilled accomplishments are noticed by his king. What could be better than being an honored leader of men?

SHORT STORY - His wife has undertaken a new hobby and involved him in foraging for materials. What could be better than an activity that brings the whole family together? What happens when a patient, tolerant, and supportive husband reaches his limit?

Solomon, as you may remember, was a king of Israel and renowned for his proverbial (pun intended) wisdom. He is also the author of what may be the oddest book of The Holy Bible, "The Song of Solomon" - a love song. This is a love song to wisdom.