It feels bad to be aware of being wrong; so bad, in fact, that many will do whatever they can to escape the feeling entirely, even going so far as to deceive themselves into believing they are right. From the beginning of time, mankind has tried to defer their shame to others, desperate for the…

Aware as I may be of time’s passage, I tend to either under- or over-estimate its seeming effects. I get tunnel-visioned on the things that have been the same for several years without appreciating the ways in which those very things are slightly different from what they were at first, or I get caught up…

Søren Kierkegaard was a nineteenth-century philosopher who may justifiably be called a Christian, in as much as his life was dedicated to finding understanding of Christ and dispensing that understanding to the world. I do not claim exhaustive or even authoritative awareness of his beliefs, but what I do know of him has indicated to…

Upon introspection, I must acknowledge a rather contradictory relationship with the fantasy genre. Growing up, I wouldn’t have considered it as my preferred reading; yet there is no denying it formed a significant part of my literary repertoire. Some of my favorite series fell into the classification, such as The Prydain Chronicles, the Redwall series,…

The most insidious deceptions are intentionally misconstrued truths. Such falsehoods cannot be outright denied, lest the underlying reality be maligned in the process. Those of evil intent (both man and spirit) often exploit this by sabotaging the interpretation of important truths, so that understanding thereof becomes corrupted. The more vital the targeted truth, the more…

Miriam Elizabeth Rodriguez Martinez was a Mexican woman whose daughter was kidnapped and supposedly held for ransom by a cartel. Though Miriam paid the ransom, her daughter was not released, leading Miriam to conclude she was dead. Such situations were not uncommon for the area, and police investigation was rarely conclusive due to the widespread…