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.
I don’t know if it was the time of day or the geography that explains why the grocery store was so overrun with canes and walkers. The human to walker ratio at this particular Safeway was somewhere in the four to one range. The man in line before […]
Friday night at the mall. “Meet Santa”, outside Macy’s. Empty line. Nobody wants to meet Santa. Poor old guy is slumped in his velveteen chair, dejected over the lack of Christmas spirit in this place. I am killing time, walking around while my kid bowls with buddies at […]
I’m starting to wonder if it’ll be burnout that kills us. Not nuclear war, not climate change, not the androgenizing of frogs; just old fashioned fatigue. The whole human race collapsing on itself like an old brittle building, a tired packhorse burdened with one load too many. It’s […]
“Vote Trump!” This from a middle-aged man in a Seahawks jersey, the same who moments earlier struck a boo-hoo symphony in the supermarket checkout line over the inflated cost of beer. The man’s directive is aimed at a pair of younger guys, twenty-somethings by the look of them, […]
Still alive. Ah well, the odds were never in death’s favor. Today, I’ll document for absolutely no one, the events that transpired in the recovery room, moments after my waking from hernia surgery. The nurse was Filipino. Thank God for those Filipino ladies; if it weren’t for them, […]
I’m soul-sucking tired, hurt all over, counting the days till hernia surgery number two inside of two years, and I guess I feel like talking to Jesus again. Sometimes I wish I could go back, unsee what I’ve seen; it’s easier to feel satisfied when you’re delusional. Not […]
For my forty-ninth birthday, I’ve gifted myself a story about a guy with a problem similar to my own. After writing this quirky piece, I’m no closer to knowing why this problem persists for me. At least I had fun writing. Enjoy! “Happy birthday, Henry.” “Oh! Thanks. Surprised […]
The other night, I was driving home after three straight days of very little sleep and juggling the chaos from the Godzilla of all work weeks. As I turned on the road leading to my street, the oddest feeling came over me. The road suddenly did not feel […]
“Active Bodies, Quiet Minds” You will find those words displayed in every H-Wise yoga studio you enter. I was not the first to come up with the phrase, but I was the first to register the trademark. For good measure, I also trademarked busy bodies, still minds; working […]
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 […]