seanessay.com Strange how a person can significantly influence your life—and then that person is gone. For a buddy in the reserves, training in a mountain monsoon rainforest with members of the Canadian Airborne Regiment, his mentor was a paratrooper who guided him through the worst. He told me they even had to sleep on sloping […]
Many People Procrastinate on Projects
seanessay.com Whenever I procrastinate, I remember Dirty Harry saying, “A man’s gotta know his limitations.” Back in the days of manual typewriters, during my early twenties, I bought a cute little portable, complete with carrying handle. The machine was so small the letter O doubled as the zero. I also bought a nice glossy Teach […]
In My Day, We Wrote Paper Letters
seanessay.com In my youth, I was inspired by the father in the memoir Fifth Chinese Daughter, as he made copies of every letter he sent, and kept every letter he received. Although I was as lazy as the next guy, somehow I managed to always find carbon paper or make photocopies. Back then, for normal […]
Why Journals are Jolly
seanessay.com In my shared house, one evening, there were two identical blond heads, plus my own, bent over at our kitchen table, journalling. A male housemate came in, made a remark, and I quipped, “It’s journal night in Canada.” One of the blonds, one night, got into a sexual activity with me and later told […]
Being An Ornery Old Man
seanessay.com I’m only a senior citizen who doesn’t expect Canadians at the next breakfast table to remember… Sean Crawford, in last week’s post, A Spy Being Too Tired I started being an ornery old man back in childhood. I would take a Pacific Stage Lines bus along the mighty Fraser to the port city of […]
A Spy Being Too Tired
essaysbysean “Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.” The ancient Greek poet Aeschylus, quoted from memory by Senator Robert Kennedy. (footnote) … … Somedays I can’t be bothered to be a […]