It is free will, after all, that is simultaneously both a feature and a bug within our species and is at the root of every victory and defeat we have confronted since the dawn of our existence.
Author: David M. Poff
There's not much to say... I come from a long line of Appalachian folk that landed in America long before flipping off the King was even a twinkle in the eyes of our founding fathers. We have been Carpenters and coal miners... Soldiers & Sailors and pig farmers and Sunday morning circuit-riding preachers. Hell, I'm told we have even been fairly decent bootleggers too.
The oldest of my family elders I met as a child were the sons and daughters of farmers across whose red rocky fields the North and South marched and died at Antietam. I am quite sure that my ancestors had more wisdom in the palms of their crooked calloused hands than the whole lot of high-minded and over-educated White Collar class will ever acquire across the entirety of their collective lifetimes.
It is my hope that, in the midst of so many lost and self-unaware souls, I might pay forward - even a little bit - of what was handed down to me before it is my turn to swan-dive off this mortal coil.
A Necessarily – Amiss Christmas Missive
Note: This was first published on Christmas Eve of 2009. The world is dramatically different now. This year, 2020, we are suffering through a pandemic, harsh and seemingly punitive lockdowns, school and business closures, and a subtle yet brewing social, civil, and cultural war. The message this essay intends to convey, however, is timeless.
