October 30th, 2005

That’s an easy title to start with. The question is, where do we go from here? We could go back or forward or left or right. Other possibilities? Not sure. There’s some pretty weird places we could go which don’t exactly fit into one of those categories.

I don't really know where this little journey is gonna take us, but let's see.

It seems we left off last time in about the middle. Ya, that was it. We'd made it into the pie but were not yet able to reach the upper crust. Jxley had just stretched out his left leg and made it around the corner before Snurlox was able to counteract with reverse amorphous time lapse whop. Although Jxley was feeling pretty confident that he was gonna out do his buddy, by the time he'd reached the outskirts of zylot city and felt the cool breeze he knew he was in trouble.

Chapter 1

It started out as a perfectly normal late September day. Woke up, prepared my daily mug of Latte Machiatto, successfully scanned all the headlines, sent the boys off to school, and kissed daughter and wife goodbye. Off on my bike down the road, I already wished I’d have put on an extra layer under my too thin jacket. Summer was over and Autumn was making itself felt with a surprisingly cold wind. Scooting by all the kids on their way to school, I cruised across the bridge and down along the Neckar River, my favorite stretch on my short commute.  The tall chestnut trees, lining both sides of the river, caught me off guard with their almost offensive yellow-orange glare. The trees had been turning for a few days now, but the last time I took a closer look, the chestnut leaves were just starting to make the change from deep green to red. The strong colors served to counterbalance my rather melancholy mood in the face of the oncoming dreary winter months.

Chapter 1: The Skowronski Girls

It was an usually warm June day in 1909. The wide spectrum of spring colors had slowly given way to the deep green of summer. The oak and walnut trees lining the street had gained back their leaves and a warm, dry breeze had encouraged the young neighborhood kids to start up a serious game of hide-and-go-seek. A small group of adolescent boys skeptically observed the childish games, more concerned about checking out the local girls and generally just showing off.

((This was a letter to the German newspaper taz that I wrote in June, 2007. It's only available in German.))

Es hat mich gefreut, den Artikel von Karl Lauterbach in der taz am 26.6.07 zu lesen. Ein Thema wird angesprochen, das meiner Meinung nach einen zentralen Problempunkt unserer Gesellschaft darstellt.