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.
The older I become, the less interested I am in hearing people’s advice. If the person shares their supposed wisdom by way of a screen, especially when it comes with the precursor––most people don’t know…, I am out. I don’t need to know what most people don’t know. […]
She wore a black surgical mask, the nurse with the golden eyes. She introduced herself before I went under, though I couldn’t tell you her name. It was she who later woke me, told me all is well, and the response dropped from my sleepy mouth—your eyes are […]
You are smarter than I was at your age, but I urge you not to take much solace in that. When faced with world altering decisions, your brain can betray you. The smarter you are, the louder the what ifs. I remember the feeling distinctly from that time […]
A pot maker does not mold a lump of clay into the shape he wants. If he is good at what he does, the potter asks the clay what it wants to be and makes it that. I’ve been working a particular lump of clay for nearly eighteen […]
This road only goes one way: the way it’s going. You can imagine it’s not so, that the road could veer this way or that; perhaps it could even turn backward and take you to places you’ve already been. Remove the idea of could from that notion, and you may […]
I never got to swim with turtles. This was one of lowlights from my first and second to last cruise, a dozen or so years ago. It was to be one of those guided experiences you pay extra for, the kind that are often underwhelming, but I believed […]
“Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” I learned that line in Sunday school, but I don’t recall anyone explaining what heavenly treasure looks like. I do remember talk of the divine carpenter building a heavenly home just for me. Maybe the treasure was meant to pay for […]
I got a pug at home who’s feeling lost because I’m out of town. Dogs are funny that way; you could put them on a cold planet in a distant galaxy, and as long as their person is with them, they’re okay. But confine them to a separate […]
I knew a woman once; Beatrice I think her name was. Her final moments so well encapsulated my observations of humankind, I continue to think of her years later. The question came from her soon-to-be widower, “Are you scared, dear?” Beatrice didn’t answer, lacking strength then to speak. […]
It started noisily, with a BANG. Or if a more intimate metaphor suits you, it began with a holy word from a timeless Lord of hosts, then returned to quiet. The infection simmered in silence, unnoticed at first, and still to this day, prolific as it is, it […]