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Paul Thomas Swann
Paul Thomas Swann

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Jun 19

Happy Paternal Unit Day

Being called father by any other name is just as great — As a new paternal unit, I pondered what I wanted to be called by our children. For some reason, I wanted them to call me Papa. I’m not sure why. Maybe because that's what their mother had always called her paternal unit in Russia where she was born and raised. …

Fatherhood

2 min read

Happy Paternal Unit Day
Happy Paternal Unit Day

Mar 24

Pennies From Heaven or How Not to Donate Loose Coins

I’m six years old. And like normal six-year-olds, I am fidgety, shifting my little body back and forth in a wooden church pew in a community called Plateau, which, by the way, most people mispronounce. I’m clutching coins in my hands. They’re mostly pennies, a few nickels, and some dimes…

Humor

3 min read

Pennies From Heaven or How Not to Donate Loose Coins
Pennies From Heaven or How Not to Donate Loose Coins

Apr 29, 2021

Fear Selling

Why I Despise this type of “Motivation” — Did I just use a big hairy spider to induce you to read my article about fear? Yes. Yes, I did. A friend invited my wife and me out to supper once. I thought it strange that there were about 20 other couples there also. …

Fear

3 min read

Fear Selling
Fear Selling

Apr 5, 2021

Getting Married and Learning to Read

My grandmother’s gift to her new husband would later become a blessing to her as well. — When they got married in 1903, in Alabama, my paternal grandfather (Ollie Manning) could not read. I am sure this was common in this area of Alabama in the early twentieth century. Probably common to lots of people during this time. My grandfather was a carpenter, so he could work…

Literacy

2 min read

Learning to Read
Learning to Read

Apr 4, 2021

Squirrels, Horses, and Marriage Proposals

Baldwin Square is not just another city park to me — Before it was a park in the middle of the now “heavily populated” Satsuma, Alabama, under a canopy of oaks and home to a few billion squirrels, there stood a small wood-framed house with a detached garage, or as I liked to remember it — our horse barn. We didn’t…

Horses

3 min read

Squirrels, Horses, and Marriage Proposals
Squirrels, Horses, and Marriage Proposals

Apr 1, 2021

A Love Story in Winter

Not everyone sees the happiness you may be sharing I twirled her around a few times while the soft moonlight filtered and fractured its way through the frozen branches of a row of nearby birch trees. It was this magical moment that one simply cannot replicate in the warm and…

Love

3 min read

A Love Story in Winter
A Love Story in Winter

Feb 8, 2021

Mustache of Shame

What is your facial hair hiding? — I was a grown man before I decided to shave off that awful mustache. And, I’ve never looked back. The impetus for change? A girl. A stunning and multi-lingual college-age Russian who was a part of a group of other college girls assigned as translators for a motley crew of…

Appearances

3 min read

Mustache of Shame
Mustache of Shame

Dec 31, 2020

On Making Good Decisions

This biblical character made a stupid vow that he likely didn’t carry out — I’m at Vacation Bible School on a Tuesday night in central Arkansas. I love going to VBS. When our girls were little, we’d take them to every possible VBS we could find. Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, Church of Christ, Church of God, Catholic, Free Range, Wiccan, didn’t matter. Just kidding about…

Decisions

4 min read

On Making Good Decisions
On Making Good Decisions

Dec 13, 2020

The Pinecone Kicker

Greer never gave up on his dream, although his body had reservations — Greer Davidson took a light and guarded step, planted his foot onto the football field, shifted his weight, and swung his right leg toward an object perched in the grass in front of him. Eighty-thousand fans stopped screaming and, for the moment, breathing, while Greer readied to kick a football…

Fiction

6 min read

The Pinecone Kicker
The Pinecone Kicker

Dec 12, 2020

Learning To See Clearly

I had never paid much attention to the lilies until they were out of focus — We’re at a little church that we’ve visited several times lately. It’s just a big country church with good, friendly people. Nothing fake here. There is one problem, however. And I hate to bring it up. But … There are pieces of artwork on either side of the front wall…

Life

3 min read

Learning To See Clearly
Learning To See Clearly
Paul Thomas Swann

Paul Thomas Swann

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