Tag: personal reflections

  • The forgotten ones

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    by

    Jim Kepler
    in

    “Oh two.” “No,” Don said, “when will you see the board, James?” “Oh two.” “Let me try again, James. How long until you’ll first have a chance to appear for a hearing before the parole board?” Don persisted. “Twenty-oh-two.” James looked down as he mumbled his answer. Don and I looked at each other, stunned.…

  • One room

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    by

    Jim Kepler
    in

    I live in a room. Literally. One room. Before coming to my son’s home, my wife and I had lived in a seven-room apartment whose sunroom directly overlooked the lake. Sunrises and moonrises over the water were breathtaking, and it was fun to watch airplanes heading for O’Hare from the east. One Sunday evening, we…

  • Rapid write

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    by

    Jim Kepler
    in ,

    Assignment: Rapid write. Write fast, don’t look back, don’t edit. I think I’ve been stiff and stuffy all my life, both physically and emotionally. Where other guys bounced around on the balls of their feet, I tended to plod. It’s curious: I watch gymnastics on YouTube, men and women, and I can feel the freedom…

  • On loneliness and aloneness

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    by

    Jim Kepler
    in

    I recall not too many years ago reading an article or an obituary about someone who was born in the eighteen-eighties or -nineties. That doesn’t happen anymore. Now there simply isn’t anyone living who was born before 1900. No one. It seems a trivial thing to notice. But it’s there: a reminder that I’m not…

  • I make books

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    by

    Jim Kepler
    in

    Assignment: Introduce yourself in a few words or sentences. I make books. That was my elevator speech. And I’ve done it for fifty years. There’s not a lot that I know about anything else. I wrote textbooks, (social studies & language arts), healthcare, and business I know how books are edited differently from newspapers, magazines,…