Blog
Asking questions can lead you to new places. Writing helps bring you to answers. And more questions.
Here, I’ve collected writings on a number of topics. Sometimes they’ve been published elsewhere, and other times they’re just for this blog.
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Or, how my octogenarian grandfather taught me something thousands of tuition dollars didn’t So I’ve been moping around, trying to write this and that, and complaining about having no time. I am a busy guy. Hand on the Bible. I’m working two jobs, planning a wedding, trying to be a good fiancé, sibling, friend, literary…
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A bespectacled retrospective Oh God, I thought, sitting on eye doctor’s the rolling chair, I’m more blind than I thought. The soft voiced assistant, a portly older man, had given me one task: Stare at the green light with my right eye. But I couldn’t even find it, so I moved my head around the…
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I got a little too close to the action Friday night while on assignment for the Mooresville-Decatur Times. I’d just moved to this spot when… well, you know what’s about to happen right after the shutter closed.
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For grandma and grandpa Figy on their anniversary
The fellowship hall at my grandparents’ church is like most others, too bright walls, rectangular fluorescent lights, carpet with disorienting patterns designed to hide spills and stains. I unknowingly sit down next to the pastor, and he asked for my connection—who I am, why I deserve to be at Jim and Hazel Figy’s 65th anniversary…
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On post-apocalyptic Colorado and survival odds (for the Allens)
We had barely left, making our way to Denver International Airport, leaving Colorado, when Sally pointed to the left and said, “That’s Erie,” the town where The Dog Stars takes place. She said, “They have airstrips instead of driveways.” Then we had a debate—thanks to Amy, I mean Dr. Sekhar—about how they go to the…
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5 Questions with Lumineers pianist Stelth Ulvang
When I met Stelth Ulvang, he was standing on the side of the road halfway between Cincinnati and Indianapolis with his thumb up. I told my now-fiancée that we should pick him up, adding comfortingly, “He’s safe: he has a skateboard.” (Side note: Ever since, my detective aunt won’t cease to remind me not to pick…
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I could’ve been Jim Halpert (an essay about specialness)
I don’t really like to talk about the few months I lived in Washington. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the scenery or the people I met during my quest for meaning, or whatever. But I left something behind in the Evergreen State. I left my specialness. First off, just because I said Washington doesn’t…
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The Lay of Gus the Dog, pt. I
https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/494231922172637184 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/494247892992131072 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/494266348621795328 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/494271912277598208 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/494273068273913858 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/494274982772346880 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/494276204958986240 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/494279003725758465 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/494284952519708673 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/494293030548287488 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/494294295482875905 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/494294855174983681 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/494316574027681792 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/494317111754227712 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/494317730435047424 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/494494041854451712 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/494567558742171648 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/494568341018001408 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/494878804192792576 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/495317709878358016 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/495320006226223104 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/496466082765365249 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/496466820887359490 https://twitter.com/JAFigy/status/496471539949117440
James Figy 