Specialists

Medical specialists tend to skew their point of view in accordance with their specialty.  An internal medicine specialist will tell you not to drink wine because it may harm your liver.  A cardiologist may tell you drinking red wine, in moderation, is good for your heart.  A podiatrist will caution you against dropping the bottle.  

—Mitchell Hegman

-38 Degrees

At 4:33 this morning, I found myself traversing Prickly Pear Creek while driving through the valley on my way home after dropping that girl off at the airport.  On our way to the airport, as we crossed the creek, I had remarked, “I often find the coldest temperatures right at this spot in the valley.” 

True to form, my car registered a temperature of -38 degrees Fahrenheit when I thumped across the bridge above the creek.

I captured a rather poor image of my instrument panel showing the temperature and have posted that here.

Consider this:  Our normal high for today should be something near 44 degrees.  Our low should be around 21 degrees.

We are talking 59 degrees colder than normal.

—Mitchell Hegman

Silver Medalist

Just look at that, will you.

The silver medalist is beaming with pride.  He is elated.  He doesn’t see himself as having lost the gold.

He won the silver.

—Mitchell Hegman

Meteor

Early this morning, as I floated about in my hot tub, a meteor struck the stars immediately above me and unspooled brilliantly before my eyes.  The brushstroke of white light lasted for no more than a second.

But that’s all it takes.

That’s all it takes to remind me about the smallness of being me.

—Mitchell Hegman

Maybe a Motto

Perhaps happiness could reign supreme if we all lived by the motto: Better to have juggled poorly than not to have juggled at all.

—Mitchell Hegman

The Man Forgets

The sun forgets nothing.  Every day the sun rises and remembers to brush its bright fingers against everything—against each tilted blade of grass.  Each canopy of trees.   All the overthrust mountains.  A child’s bare arm.  A fallen fence post.  The mist rising from twisting rivers

But the man forgets to touch the fallen fencepost.  The mist.  The mountains.

The man forgets to stay young.

And, one day, the man forgets to rise.

—Mitchell Hegman

Mysteries

Life is bursting with mysteries.

For example, how did a simple and smallish tribe of Mongols sweep across Eurasia and dominate all?

If he is out there, how has Bigfoot evaded us for so long?

Why did tattoos become a thing?

Finally, why—considering how good coffee smells—doesn’t it taste as good as Scotch?

—Mitchell Hegman