Lucas J. Draeger
Banish me to a dark corner, chain me to a keyboard, and I will gladly be a word slave. I'd sit there all day, with only an occasional demand for a coffee break.
I'm a would-be (wanna be) author, middle aged, fairly repressed, but extremely BLESSED with an amazing wife and two brilliant boys.
For several years, I've been haunted by images of the starving, drug addicted, victimized teens of the streets. I write about them a lot.
It didn’t strike me until Ms. Christmas said, “I’m going to pick up our one kid from school.”“Can you believe it?” she asked. “We only have one kid!”I’m getting a little slow with age. A few ticks of the clock went by before I caught her meaning. We […]
Welcome to Total Eddie, 2022 edition. I’ll forgive you if you don’t know what I mean by Total Eddie. Posts to this blog have been sparse in recent years, New Year’s posts in particular. Total Eddie is an initialism for the acronym TTLETY, or, top things Luke experienced […]
If the saxophone is the world’s sexiest instrument, the baritone sax must be its tubby sister no one wants to date. While the sax is out front getting glory, hitching itself to names like Coltrane, Parker, and Getz, the bari hangs behind, nameless and faceless. I’m one of […]
“You taught me the courage of stars before you left.How light carries on endlessly, even after death.”Saturn – Sleeping At Last We’ve been binging episodes of Friday Night Lights at my house. It’s an entertaining and addictive show that’s only nominally about football and much more about teen […]
The girl with the sticky fingers doesn’t know she holds a rare artifact beneath her thumb. Please don’t think she’s stupid for that. Her mother doesn’t know either. Neither would you, were it your hand holding me (or your jeans pocket, or change purse, or the little compartment […]
It’s been three years since I last composed a Top Things Luke Experienced This Year list (TTLETY, pronounced Total Eddie). I’d meant for it to become an annual tradition, but I managed to miss the past two years. Given my inconsistency, perhaps it’s better I commit to an […]
“Nobody wants to be anywhere. Nobody likes anything.”Jerry Seinfeld – 23 Hours To Kill If there’s a single statement which accurately describes the spirit of our age, these words from Seinfeld do as well as any. He finishes the thought by saying, “We’re cranky, we’re irritable, and we’re […]
His name is Navdeep, and he’s going to kill us. That’s the declaration of Andy, my traveling companion on this early morning ride share to the airport. Andy began his backseat commentary with, “Hey, that’s a red light!”, then graduated to “Dude, you’re gonna kill us!” We are […]
It’s time again for my annual birthday story. Writers sometimes talk of stories that write themselves. The older I get, the more elusive I find such stories to be. This one, however, did write itself. Channeling this tale brought me comfort; I hope it does the same for […]
“Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”John 2:10 If you’re reading this, there’s nothing else you could be doing. This is good news, because it means […]