The Nation We Live In, a Collection of Essays and Short Stories

I personally just returned from a full week's Thanksgiving vacation in Las Vegas, Nevada. The gambling, tourist, strip mecca of the United States of America. According to a fifteen-year plus Las Vegas resident and my own true blood cousin, she described the city as "half-price" California. Geographically and climate-wise, I would agree with her.  During my fall visit, the outside weather in Vegas was very sunny, crisp, and welcoming. For a desert land, the city averages just 4 inches of rain per year, it was splendid. The daily temperatures ranged from a low in the Fahrenheit '40s to a high in the '60s. My visiting air mattress and futon bed residence for the week was in the northwest Las Vegas suburbs. I spent pretty much an entire week living with a kind and nurturing family in suburbia. This suburbia to its credit was very clean, flat, simple to navigate and calm. Las Vegas's Suburbia is perhaps the same as any other clean suburb in America ...

The monotony, repetitions, and sameness of life, can become quite obvious. The same morning ritual, the same place of residence, and similar work, sleep patterns can often occur. Are the doldrum periods of time in one's life something to fear or to be embraced? I think the doldrums in life can be viewed equally in regards to positivity or negativity. Are you a person who enjoys a comfortable lifestyle pattern? For example, my awesome, nurturing, caring fantastic mother is a person who enjoys the sedentary, nesting and domestic simple joys in life. My mother's happiness seems to be derived from such ordinary tasks as taking care of her home, gardening her front and back yards while being a caring and attentive grandmother. My mother has never been a loud partier, ambitious world traveler, or society bucking activist. My mom is an ideal example of a person who fondly embraces the calm, conservative and domestic lifestyle. She is a loving grandma who understand...

In today's times, and post nationwide 2016 election, we've learned the disconnect, separations, differences, and perhaps even disgust between city living residents versus rural America is quite strong. Do we hate each other? No, not yet, as hate is a strong word. But the distance and worry are getting worse. America's cities are becoming increasingly politically blue, as rural America is remaining less educated and Republican red. It has become the city slicker residents versus the conservative, less government country folks. A burgeoning new-age political civil war.   It's like 2 different worlds are simultaneously jarring against the other. How about we examine the stark differences between rural and city living America. City dwellers represent a diverse, evolving rocky road type of edible pie, while rural America seems stuck in their monolithic, bland, stagnant and traditional apple pie. Which pie would you eat? Would you eat them both? Personally, I ca...