GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES

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By BR Chitwood

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From clean and washed minds, that is, from teachers of my past, elementary grades through college and beyond, from teachers of whom I can write these words with a modicum of certainty, this narrative comes to anyone who would want to read it – based on the events and factions today ruling our classrooms.

Foremost and generally accepted, we have devoted and principled teachers in our classrooms who wish to empower our children with history’s truthful events and doctrines, to teach our children the basics of Math, Reading, Science, and Social Studies that were taught to them by the disciplined minds of patriotic teachers who did not slip in nuances of some country’s Socialist principles where power to dictate and rule come from wealthy and poisoned minds of the past, those who rule by tyranny…does ‘American Marxism’ ring a bell?

If ‘Marxism’ does not ring a bell, think of some of our new dialogues in the ‘higher circles’ – teaching young children in their beginning classrooms about this ugly phenomenon, about a boy becoming a girl so he can compete and win in ‘Women’s Sports’ and vice versa…changing ‘rest rooms’ into non-exclusive rooms for body functions but for ‘lighting up’ or ‘shooting up’ with drugs.

Okay, I did not know the horror of all this until I began to research some of the stuff I was reading and hearing about it on the television channels…too retired into my writing and movie watching.

It is real, folks, believe me. If you can do any data-type research on colleges and universities across out country, you will find out for yourselves. So many of our schools and Universities are into this ‘ugly business’ in a thick and nasty way. Our US Education Association is in lock-step with this new Marxism, and their big money we fork out to them make them all the more dangerous. This plague, if I may make this reference, is so much with us at this point in time – more than I can do any creditable penning of the issue here. However, it is real, and it is true, even in our national government, representatives who should not be part of decision making in our House and Senate but neither should they be in our country.

We are the United States of America, free and able to express our grievances, untethered, free to make our own choices of who runs our governments – state and national – free to choose our leaders, particularly the President of this great country, but how many of us believe this past election was a terrible slap in the face to our loyal citizens… Senility and power are strange and dangerous bed partners. This president and his VP should be, must be, replaced quickly. We need real and enforceable laws to contain the crime and evil that comes with our freedom, but we should have a diligent and true police presence everywhere to protect our great nation and its people.

I am just a citizen, but I love my country and its democratic policies, truly protected from graft and malfeasance.

God Bless the United States!

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BR Chitwood May 19, 2022

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https://www.brchitwood.com

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So, Now What?

So, Now What?

BR Chitwood

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Another move!

Sold our beautiful South Mountain Retreat – could not turn down the price…yeah, I know, money is not everything! Couple it, however, with home prices ‘through the roof’, a body getting older and less functional with each passing day plus a handsome payoff and a temporary move-in with our good and wise daughter, my wife doing all the work (I know, I know! I’m worthless!) and me sitting sprawled on my ‘lift chair’ already typing this short post… A lovely couple, Blake and Claudia along with their beautiful Lab, Sami, are the new owners – Blake, a Clinical Psychologist and, Claudia, a Registered Nurse – beautiful people from the far west.

Aging of course comes with strange catalysts, like, a sudden fall or short memory recall…just laying the foundation like it is, the result of a couple of falls, some aches and pains.  I can still walk and get around, have family who cater to my needs – and, wow, I use this to the greatest ‘poor me’ extent possible. Actually, the place I feel still secure within myself, still viable in my writing, is when I open this laptop gadget and start my pecking.

You can take this to the bank: I shall know when my words become too mundane and without any solid penmanship…maybe this short post will give one pause as to the viability of my writing…,

  That is when I will ‘rock you’ with a scintillating short story, flash fiction, and/or poetry. Writing has been such a strong force for so many years, it would be sacrilege not to obey its enticements.

So, no earth-shattering piece here, just some facts of my aging life for my small cadre of readers and writers.

 My wife did all the work, so why am I so damned tired?

Just saying!

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BR Chitwood – May 9, 2022

Go to Word Press for synopses of my twenty books, over 400 blog posts, short stories, flash fiction, and poetry.

https://www.brchitwood.com

Always With Love

Always With Love

BR Chitwood

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It is difficult to imagine where I would be in this life without the woman in the picture above, my wife, assuming my existence in this life at this point in time.

Sure, it is just another sentimental prosing of a hopeless ‘Romantic’, but this lady, Julie Anne, is all the trumpeting I’m doing here, and, more. She has been with me through the writing of twenty books in different genres, hundreds of blog posts, short stories, and flash fiction, reading it all, offering helpful comments along with her praise…in the meantime, preparing our meals, caring for our pets, and still managing to be a mother to our many children.

My immersion in the writing brings at times outbursts and childish behavior…she simply smiles gently and wanders off to tackle other chores.

Now, near the final years of aging, I still do some writing. Julie Anne does a lot with her genealogy efforts, communicating with people from all over the globe…Genealogy fascinates her, and her glee in finding new people who belong to her ‘tree’.

Julie has written about the pets we have owned through the years – “Animal Crackers in My Bed” (the book is on Amazon).

She has also compiled a history book – “The World After World War 1” (a ‘Tome’, really) of letters written by her grandmother and two sisters of her grandmother. One of the sisters serving overseas in the Red Cross during ‘World War One’. The letters brilliantly depict the history of the time – 1918-1921…also on Amazon. (A copy of one of the letters, written by James Thurber to the Red Cross sister, was acquired by Ohio State University for their historic documents of major importance.

Julie is a unique and beautiful lady, and, for some forty years, she has been there to help and encourage me in my writing, to love me, and a mom of the highest order… I am a most lucky man…

BRC

https://brchitwood.com

ired But Still in the Fight

Tired – But Still in the Fight

BR Chitwood

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The softness, sweetness settles within me

On this still, slumberous, summer day…

The sky above is clear and convenient

 To my aging heart and soul of wandering.

The big windows out of which I peer

Display the birds, quails and rabbits in

Their daily missions for food and play,

          Forever watchful as the coyotes are fast         

 Afoot, canny, can spring from the idle

Brush, Ironwood, and Palo Verde Trees.

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Here, in the comfort of A/C and luxury,  

My mind ponders the plurality of messages

My outside view might reveal through

This tired heart and soul that have borne

Witness to so much my Gracious God

Has so generously shared along my way…

The joy of love and family, the search

For fame and glory that has shown in

Quantities never as large as one might hope,

Never the prominence foolish pride allowed.

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So, it seems this beauty outside my windows

Is occasionally followed by rain and wind…

Perhaps, more in hope and longing, nay, in

Truth and Faithful days and nights of dark

And wistful thoughts, witnessed by the moon

And brilliant stars outside another window…

After prayer, a truth emerges, vague, tingling,

And, suddenly, my bedroom wall to the East,

 An amorphous cloud slowly passes, my eyes

Widen: an image of Jesus gently smiling…

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BR Chitwood –

https://brchitwood.com

Do You Know This Man?

Do You Know This Man?

By BR Chitwood

Do You Know This Man?

No? I knew him, not so well, some forty years ago…he was a habitue, a devotee, of the Phoenix neon night life, searching for parts of himself he lost along a long emotional road from the hills of Appalachia: lost in an abusive and disoriented childhood; lost in a flawed and impetuous marriage; lost in the glittering promise of booze and women. Yes, I knew him, not so well, as he made all his stumbles along the way, losing not only himself but the connections to family and friends, to the people who loved him.

Yes, of course, I’m the man in the photo, and there’s a lot more to the story…hope you’ll read THE CRACKED MIRROR, Reflections of an Appalachian Son, by Billy Ray Chitwood.

Amazon Worldwide

https://www.brchitwood.com

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Excerpts from “The Cracked Mirror…”

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In the end, my story must be like so many others, a story of a simple kid who grew up eating emotional soup and spending a lifetime trying to digest it. There are no spectacular or heroic moments. I’ve been in the United States Navy, but I’ve never fought a war—except the one I’ve declared within myself. So I know not the pain of holding a bleeding comrade to my bosom as he or she gasps the final breaths. I know not the anguish of a parent losing a child in an accident, or, in war—unless losing a child to drugs can be comparable. I’ve loved and been in love, but I’ve never stepped far enough from myself to know the true and natural profundity of its happiness and joy. I’ve been born but never died—unless the demon of the past is segmented death. The prospect of dying scares the hell out of me—not so much the prospect itself, but the pitiful legacy that is left behind. I’ve known insecurity and fear, along with self-confidence, loyalty, and pride. There have been the sins, small enough, I hope, to keep me at least somewhere in the thoughts of those I’ve loved. At times I’ve longed for ‘Nepenthe,’ the drug mentioned in ‘The Odyssey’ as a remedy for grief, the potion used by the ancients to induce forgetfulness of pain and sorrow. But, then, without some pain, can the soul truly seek refuge when the long journey is over?

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The jail cell brought back sobriety and a stark reality. Sitting on a hard dirty ‘bed thing’ in the dimly lit, tiny barred enclosure, the demon thoughts came and possessed me. My world was disintegrating around me! The claustrophobic cell was my coffin of contriteness, a veritable symbol of my languishing life. There again was the ‘dark closet’ feeling within me, an anxious and suffocating hell! Grabbing at the bars I pitifully called out to the jailer, but no one came. Within the limited space I paced, stopped at the ugly stained wall, splayed my body against it, and tapped my forehead against its roughness. The jailer eventually came. He showed me a smile of compassion and told me that morning would come soon; then, I would be arraigned. The fitful night would pass.

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It is Time that wears down the acts and deeds of man into something forgettable, mundane, heroic, noble, historical, and unforgettable. It is Time that leads us warily toward the greatest secret of all: That which lies beyond the dark veil!

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“…There are men like you in the world, Prentice, through whatever kind of intervention, divine or otherwise, who must make us cry and laugh, who record for us the stirrings of the soul which we might otherwise never know.”

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BR Chitwood

Okay, here I am today, no longer chasing those windmills, still trying to figure out this ‘one foot in front of the other’ thing. There are times when it seems I’m pretty close to figuring out this grand production, but those times are little teaser moments to stir something in the soul — sort of like a dreaded visit to a doctor or dentist, getting the car repaired – feels great when you find out the blood pressure is normal (thanks to a little round pill taken each day), the teeth cleaning and exam present no new cavities, and the car now carries no shameful dent.

All in all, living for some years on the rolling bluegrass hills of lovely Kentucky, a good wife, an aging, lovable cat, great daughters and sons, have given me happiness and joy. Back in Arizona the past still gets in my way at times in inscrutable ways, like a misty longing for something valuable I’ve left behind. I’ve never abandoned my faith, though fragile it might be, and there are many more good days than bad,

With all this said, I’m still writing, still searching…guess that only stops when mortal time gives up on me…

 BR Chitwood – April 6, 2022

If you like books of mystery, suspense, action, romance, many of which are inspired by true events, please visit my website at  https://www.brchitwood.com – after a short bio, just scroll down the ‘home’ page to preview the books and synopses of each.

More: It’s all here: https://www.brchitwood.com

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Nine of the author’s 20 books shown below…  Go to https://www.brchitwood – Website with synopses of all 20 books, over 375 blog posts, short stories, poetry, songs, author info, and BUY SITES AT YOUR AMAZON SITE…

Please visit! You will find some good reading with ‘BUY SITES’, book reviews, et al!

BR Chitwood – Author

April 6, 2022

NOTE:

All books below have 5-STAR REVIEWS on AMAZON!

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If you like books of mystery, suspense, action, romance, many of which are inspired by true events, please visit my website at  https://www.brchitwood.com – after a short bio, just scroll down the ‘home’ page to preview the books and synopses of each.

More: It’s all here: https://www.brchitwood.com

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Nine of the author’s 20 books shown above…  Go to https://www.brchitwood – Website with synopses of all 20 books, over 375 blog posts, short stories, poetry, songs, author info, and BUY SITES…

Please visit! You will find some good reading with ‘BUY SITES’, book reviews, et al!

BR Chitwood – Author

April 6, 2022

Too Much to Absorb

BR Chitwood

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A better person than I can parse and understandthe confounding nature of our world, how we arrive at a multitude of decisions as a disjointed group of politicians handle affairs of our nation from a position of power, personal goals, anger, and disassociation from a particular item of high importance to the people for whom they represent.

 It is my belief that our government handlers are anything but centered to their life-long political biases and hatred for their counter-parts, many so paralyzed by their animosity they would deny their nation responsible representation.

An Appalachian transplant, who am I to have such thoughts?

I saw it at recess on the grounds of my elementary and high schools, in the classrooms, in the halls stalked by bullies… Unlike today, we young people were taught ‘Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic’ so we were spared today’s wide-spread indoctrination of blame, of how and who to hate for society’s slide into racial issues, kept alive and more viable to our youth by an almighty ‘National Association of Teachers Union’.

Okay, sure, we must allow for environmental differences, low IQs, high IQs, parental inability to carefully cultivate and fine-tune tolerance and care for a multitude of beliefs. We are built in our early years and that inculcation en masse make for the world we build.

So, we migrate, spread our selective fine-tuning to other cities, other countries, and the centuries roll on with our human sacrifices, wars, famine, and ultimate destruction and re-building…until!

What?

Our ‘Religions’ speak in different tongues, views that see ‘life and death, heaven, hell’ in totally sharp contrast…

Life goes on.

Death goes on.

Zealots go on.

Will freedom and liberty go on?

Can love conquer all?

Can a ‘Cosmic Wave’ pass over the world, instilling in each of us a predominant theme for living?

Does this ‘Cosmic Wave’ erase all of the frailties of the world?

Does Jesus return to make all things right?

Does another planet in another Solar System come to create a true Eloi?

Are we a ‘Lab Experiment’ that has gone wildly awry?

There is so much good in the world – can it not be an unbreakable bond for humanity?

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BR Chitwood

https://brchitwood.com

http://twitter.com (@brchitwood)

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Really, Why Wars?

BR Chitwood

Really, Why Wars?

BR Chitwood

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Why would someone far away from the bomb bursts, flying bullets, and so much human suffering dwell on a Putin-pressed war in Ukraine…for that matter, why so many in the world dwell on this manic and corrupt event?

While pedestrian and immediately naïve, I need to put my words down because it is Sunday… Why, Sunday? A holy day for most of us, a day to dwell on our sins/transgressions, a day to pray for hope, for personal salvation, and for entire World Peace.

Of course, we have enough fret and worry of the ‘Infidel Killers’ and other groups who love to hate and kill.

With’ Putin’s War’, the ‘fret’ becomes more fierce, more difficult to calculate actions and reactions. Much of the world views Putin as a ‘Mad Man’, capable of actions leaders of nobility would never consider. The worst descriptive words for this beast of humanity have been used up by people of the world who follow his atrocities…it is difficult to imagine him long for this world. His sly eyes and demeanor, all that he is, there for the world to see. A reasonable person would assume this cold and distant Satanic collaborator could not be long for this global pool of humanity.

I pretend no great expertise on this Russian dictator and only rely on the years of ‘News Reports’ for this deeds and death tolls, like those being registered in Ukraine today and throughout his tenure in this world. I am just a man, imperfect in many ways with sins I must ultimately account for, sins far below the standards of this leader of a great nation.

So, I’m but an American Patriot who has served his country in our armed services, compelled in this modest monologue mostly by anger and by empathy and sympathy for the savagery being done to a Ukrainian nation of people of simple lives and loving families…

Shall I say, I just needed to vent my emotions and at least convey my humble and best wishes to those good and humble people subjected to this ‘Power and Ego-fed’ dictator.

I pray for the Ukrainian people a quick end to these hostilities and a return to normalcy – if it can ever be so…my heart grieves with yours.

BR Chitwood – March 7, 2022

https://brchitwood.com

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The Author’s Mission

For Me, I Write

BR Chitwood

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Since my mobile and turbulent childhood my head fills with the events and movements of the days, the emotions that come and stay with me until I write about them from some subliminal heart/mind connection the words flow onto the screen of my laptop. I accept them and allow them entry on the page – as though they were destined to be there, an outlet for the subtle joy and pain of the soul…it is my belief that all artistic endeavors come from that similar sort of tingling.

As some subscribers to my blog posts might allow, most of my writing has a ‘Romantic’ cant, from my murder mysteries (some taken from actual crimes) to genres with historical essence, love, poetry, murder, and current events. My writing heroes of the past are many – …Hemingway, Steinbeck, Crane, DeMille, Grisham, to name a few. For Poetry, my favorite is an ex-Priest named James Kavanaugh.

I have written twenty books, their ‘buy sites’, 375 blog posts written over the years, plus poetry and tribute pieces to Arnold Palmer and other notables. That Website/Blog site address is:

https://brchitwood.com

 I hope you will visit my website/blog, look over some of the book synopses, posts, poetry…perhaps you will find something you would like to read…

At least, I can hope!

Wishing all writers and readers my best wishes.

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BR Chitwood – February 28, 2022

https://brchitwood.com

Author BR Chitwood’s Writing

By BR Chitwood

PLEASE VIEW

1. You sleep while riding a ‘mare’ or ‘dreaming peacefully’. You awake in a ‘bad mood’, snack on quick and easy ‘coffee and toast’ (too much coffee!), and drive to your job – while your kidneys insist on your quick attention…
2. You sit at your desk, work menial tasks and have your fanciful day dreams and ‘Romantic Thoughts’…
3. You think of where you and your soulmate will vacation… perhaps a great resort in Aruba or an Ocean Cruise…
4. Work ends for the day, and you go for cocktails at your favorite pub with your favorite lady…
5. At home, feeling guilty, you open your laptop and resume writing the manuscript for your new novel…
6. You take a break, check your E-Mail. There is your new blog message: “5-Star Reads in most genres – 20 books, some based on true crime, Short Stories, Flash Fiction – some books are related to true criminal events: https://brchitwood.com – Also, Romance and Suspense…”
7. Ah, c’mon! Take a ‘tour’! There are some great books and writing at this website…
8. If you are a reader, avid or not, you will enjoy the books’ synopses, blog posts, short stories, flash fiction, poetry.  
9. ‘Thank you’ from the author – and good reading!

BR Chitwood – February 24, 2022

https://brchitwood.com

https://twitter.com – @brchitwood

https://facebook.com/billyray.chitwood

So – Will Sanity Come?

So – Will Sanity Come?

BR Chitwood

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         So Many variable Genes and Hiding Places!

         So Many ‘Wiring Distinctions’ in the Brain!

         So Many Insatiable Appetites for Pleasures!

         So Many Idiots in High Government Places!

         So Many People Shocked by Sexual Change!

         So Unacceptable are our Leaders’ Response!

         So Many Selfish leaders serve their purpose!

         So Many Splinter Groups erupt in Madness!

         So Much Chaos and Madness Follow Globally!

         So When Will We Ever Learn? When Do We End?

         So, When Does True Wisdom Finally Come?

So, Does Death Bring Us the Ultimate Truth?

         So, Is This Life I Truly Love Really Simple?

So, Do People Insist on Making Life Difficult?

BR Chitwood – February 21, 2022

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Visit my Website/Blog to view my 20 books, 375 blog posts, short stories, and Flash Fiction.

https://brchitwood.com

https://twitter.com @brchitwood

https://facebook.com/Billyray/chitwood