StanleyWheeler

"Your bum looks really nice."
"Get in the left lane and turn right, here."
Those were two of the many strange phrases that I heard my daughters say this week in Rexburg. That first phrase actually referred to fourth daughter's hair bun (b-u-n), not bum--which made it significantly less disturbing that what I thought that I had heard. The second sentence was given to me by 2nd daughter as she directed me to one of the finer haute cuisine establishments in the aforementioned burg--Little Caesars Pizza where we ordered the "Extra Most Bestest" but actually received something well short of that hyperbolic superlative; the pizza was good, it just wasn't of the kind represented by the box in which it was presented. And she may not have included the comma--in the sentence, not on the pizza as that would have been an additional topping requiring a concomitant cash outlay.

What took us to that city at the feet of the majestic Tetons? (Those familiar with the area will recognize the profligate use of poetic license in that description--which is exactly the sort of dissolute dereliction of descriptive device that can get one's poetic license revoked, or suspended for 90 to 180 pages). It was just the little matter of herding another daughter into the marriage chute preparing another daughter for launch into the starry realm of marital bliss. Lift-off isn't for another month, but certain preparations were required. She is about to slip the surly bonds of single life, to move the familiar "me" back two spaces on the hierarchy of concern...behind "we" and "he" as he is about to do the same for "we" and "she."

Why would they do such a thing? Who knows? Who can say what drives seemingly normal persons to discard the comfortable "me" for the more troublesome "we"? What is that peculiar mix of chemicals and cogitation that renders "me" so plain, dull, and undesirable that it can only be remedied with "we"? Of course, it's not just any "we," but a particularly desirable combination that forms the "we." A "we" so pressing that the very thought of it being left unrealized torments the heart and soul. It is a yearning so profound, a desire of such depths, an ache of such magnitude that the mind can almost completely deny access to reason and other distractions--including eating and drinking. Love reached, but not grasped, plows the deepest of all of worry's furrows; unremitting and relentless, the sharp blade scores the fleshy heartsoil to the tender core.

Fortunately, the hope and expectation for the attainment of the "we" conquers all, driving the loving pair to master, carry on, breakthrough, and surmount all obstacles. If both hearts are willing, flesh and blood can overcome. The worrisome torment of fear and failure is vanquished in the ecstasy and euphoria of love at last grasped, held, and attained together. The time spent apart, with its accompanying distress, renders more pleasingly and potently sweet the eventual union of two hearts and souls into the absolute "we."

And, for those who care, Smoke is now available in paperback:

I had to make some slight modifications to the cover for the paperback and tinted the title with a smoky fill while I was at it. There's no time like the present to get your copy. I'm in the process of preparing Justice in Season for paperback. Writing of the sequel Justice Resurgent is still in progress.