Charles Anthony Hood

  Someone asked me what I believe in. “It’d be easier for me to tell you what I disbelieve.” I replied. The truth is I am agnostic about most things. One’s answers lie within the realm of what one is willing to believe. There are a limited number of things I believe. Empiricists declare that one can trust one’s senses. I do not trust my own senses, Nor do I trust the senses of others— Many people are incompetent. “Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.” Truman Capote laughed. Truth is hard to find in our reality.

  Playing in the woods of Northwest Alabama… Was a highlight of my childhood—a thrill. Back then, I didn’t know anything about pop culture. I was raised in a cult that forbade television, So, I was not allowed to watch television like other kids. I learned to retreat into my own imagination. I learned to be OK with aloneness and… I learned to enjoy my own company.   Not watching television made my imagination… Work overtime—I existed in a world I invented. Television they called, “the One-eyed devil.” They didn’t like it because it exposed us to a new world. I had a secret, though, a story I couldn’t tell. I had a boyfriend—our cult’s most forbidden, hated form… Of sexuality: The Holy Bible says so right there “in black and white.” I was never fully committed to the church in which I was raised.   I declared at the age of 18 I did not believe in my church. So many contradictions, things that are senseless, and… Lies (so many lies...

What happened to the fireflies? I do not see them anymore. When I was a child, They would sprinkle the darkness… With their little lights. Sometimes, we’d put them in a jar… With holes in the lid… Then release them later… After playtime was over. I read an article that said fireflies… Are going extinct. Save the fireflies! Save the fireflies! We need to hear the cry from a child, “We must save them, please!” That was my childish cry… From the child that still lives in my heart. Sadness and melancholy for the fireflies.

  God is frequently the subject of my thoughts. There have been times I believed in God… And there have been times I didn’t. I have always searched for truth, For it is truth to which I feel is worth… Dedicating your life.   The problem, of course, is knowing what the truth is. For every proposition, there are supporters and opposers, But who is factually correct? If two propositions are mutually exclusive or contradictory, Both cannot be factually correct. Consider the immaterial…   If something immaterial exists in the universe, There is no way to prove one way or the other about its properties. We may only theorize, conjecture, intuit, hypothesize, guess… What its properties are. God rests in the immaterial… The imagination!   Our minds also rest in the immaterial. The part of us that is immaterial will never be destroyed. The essence of who we are has existed since… The beginning of time—we are as old as the univer...

    Jimbo’s was open 24/7 back in the day. 1n 1987, $20 was all it took to make me… Feel rich and powerful, like a wealthy heir. I strolled into Jimbo’s with my twenty-dollar-bill. Sarah, a girl from my class, was in the store too.   She took a package of powdered doughnuts… From the shelf and put it into her purse. A banana from a basket beside the magazines, A chocolate bar, a can of soda, and salted peanuts… All into her purse they went.   “You should just steal what you want. Save your money.” Never had I stolen anything before. But her words made sense. Why should I pay? I can just steal.   Suddenly, a new concept was… Knocking around in my mind. Why pay for anything when you can steal? It seemed an easy solution for… Being “as broke as a joker on coke.”   As Sarah started out the front door, A police cruiser pulled up and out stepped… Two police officers. The officers followed procedures, and… ...

  Nothing is as it seems, nor do we… Know when time will stop. But does time stop? After all is gone and heat death complete, Will time still tick away second by second?   Inexistence is a complicated scenario… Made more complicated by the unknown. Do we get everlasting life, or eternal nothingness? After we die, the world continues moving— Memories we leave behind.   “What ifs” and “maybes” are not your concern. Nothing worth living for is easy to find. Minutes wasted on a nobody, Waiting for some time in the sun, the limelight. Waste no time in broadcasting it!   Tick, Tick, Tick time moves uninterrupted… By your will or mine. Time lost will never be found. Somewhere in a wrinkle, The Universe makes sense.

  You work hard and efficiently each day. You have a goal in mind that you visualize. Your desire for success is a fire inside you! Each step you take, you say, “This is it!” You know you will find the success you seek.   You believe you can achieve your goals! Going for you is an explosion of ambition. You dig in and prepare to stay—determination. You decide whether you are successful, And you decide not to stop until you make it!   Look forward to where you’ll be in ten years. You can make anything happen if you want it! Nobody can stop you because you are unstoppable! Like a warrior determined to make a name in this life, You make this life what you want it to be!