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Paul Thomas Swann
Paul Thomas Swann

249 Followers

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Sep 15, 2022

What an Invasive Plant Helped Me See About the Future

Also, beware the future — I ran across this little popcorn tree a few days ago. As strange as this may sound, I miss them. (Yes, I do know that they are an invasive species, but go with me here.) This one is growing in a field next to our apartment complex. For it to…

Life Lessons

3 min read

What an Invasive Plant Helped Me See About the Future
What an Invasive Plant Helped Me See About the Future
Life Lessons

3 min read


Jul 27, 2022

One Fast Way to Experience the Power of a Wrong Word

Turns out, that a stupid idea, in any other language, is still stupid. I’m on a bus in northern Russia. Our small group consisted of my future mother-in-law, a friend named George, and me. We were headed somewhere in town. My Russian skills then, like now, were nonexistent, but I…

Russian

2 min read

One Fast Way to Experience the Power of a Wrong Word
One Fast Way to Experience the Power of a Wrong Word
Russian

2 min read


Published in The Haven

·Jul 12, 2022

The “R” Question

The Army Reserve, Haircuts, and could you please stop asking me that? — I’m sitting in a barbershop in Northwest Arkansas probably 15 years ago when the obligatory barber conversation started: Me: “Just give me a low fade, kinda like a national guard cut.” Barber: “Oh, are you retired?” I frown and stay silent for a minute. Because, well, ‘one of these things…

Haircuts

2 min read

The “R” Question
The “R” Question
Haircuts

2 min read


Jun 19, 2022

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
Fatherhood

2 min read


Mar 24, 2022

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
Humor

3 min read


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
Fear

3 min read


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
Literacy

2 min 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
Horses

3 min read


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
Love

3 min read


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
Appearances

3 min read

Paul Thomas Swann

Paul Thomas Swann

249 Followers
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