Only on the Mountain:
I have an acquaintance up here on the mountain. I think he’s about my age, a Vietnam Vet with some tattoos that look homemade, and I can never quite figure out if he has teeth or has lost his false teeth because there is an unnatural slump on his chin below his lower lip, which seems to indicate there are no teeth to hold up the flesh. I sometimes have difficulty understanding him because his lips are loose and have trouble forming words. *sigh* Nice man though and his journey has been a hard one with drugs and alcohol and institutional care. After 30+ years of emotional dysfunction, the doctors finally prescribed a med that has given his life a modicum of balance. Actually, He’s quite the happy chap.

Anyway, he was relating a story the other day regarding a woman he knows who is struggling with addictions. I somewhat directly quote, “She was talking to her cousin the other day who also happens to be her uncle.” There were several other people in his audience. You could actually hear all our brains *screeeeeching* to a full pause. We all choked back uncontrollable laughter – it was nearly impossible. I mean to tell ya, he announced this relationship as though it was perfectly normal. Shoot, I really and truly have not tried to figure it out – just sounds too plain and simple nasty to me. But it’s these moments when I truly realize I live on a mountain where bygone eras are very much in the present… and that I have led a privileged and sheltered life.

Note to people I read at JS:
When I go out of town I usually cancel my subscriptions to your journals. So if it seems like I'm subscribing a lot it’s because I do and undo my subscriptions according to my travels.