He said: "For the vets of Vietnam, I say 'Welcome Home'; for those bleeding now across an ocean, 'Welcome Home'. For the Brothers and Sisters who marched for us, 'Welcome Home'. For those who stood up and who raised their voices demanding justice and who risked their lives for who we are today, 'Welcome Home'; for the men and women who love each other and who, in turn, love themselves because we are all spirits of the light, 'Welcome Home'. For the ghosts guiding us through the passage, for those who are loved and those who love; for the ones who will not be forgotten, 'Welcome Home' and Amen!"

Stumble It!

She said: "We built the house under the ground. That way it keeps cool. We're prepared for the planet to warm and we understand how important it is for at least some of us to survive the coming heat. We have water that flows beneath the house and it is drinkable most of the year. We have, just like everyone else, solar panels for electricity, but there is really only so much light that can economically be generated; we have gotten used to the dark. We get mail over the networks so we try to keep in touch with the friends and family we have left. All in all, it's not too bad. You can get used to anything in time. Funny; you know what I miss the most? Going to the beach. Isn't that funny? Going to the beach!

Stumble It!

She said: "It was like a dance where one person catches another person in the air, before they fall to the ground. It was about faith and about trust and about falling in love in an instant, forever bound, willingly, to another soul. It was like an awakening. I opened my eyes and there she was; almost like she was waiting for me to find her on that cool Autumn afternoon in the park."

Stumble It!

She said: "It was a bleak place, a bleak surround: a coin laundry, mud and brown water reflecting us as we passed by, broken down cars and houses; fog and wet scrawny dogs without collars. Inside, a pistol in a kitchen drawer; brown stains on the tub; a hungry cat, the radio tuned to static."

Stumble It!

She said: "It's all about being free; I mean Really Free, with a capital R. When I'm up there, I forget about the world and all of it's problems; I forget about maybe having a bad day or if there's enough money to pay the bills or any of that stuff. It's just so great to be up in the air, over everything, swinging free and then, suddenly, being ready to catch her as she flies across a small amount of space, being free herself, and then grabbing her arms and the two of us become one creature, joined together, swinging and knowing that we have to soon come down, but not caring, not ever really understanding, because we are, for that short time, not of this earth."

Stumble It!

He said: "When I was 16 years old I swore that I would never, ever, set foot in Alabama or Mississippi. I don't know why I didn't include Florida or Georgia or the Carolina's; it was just Alabama and Mississippi. Those two places identified for me The South and all of the torture, the misery, the injustice, the "Strange Fruit", the burning churches, the shots in the night, everything about these places was frightening and repulsive to me, so I swore that I would remove them from my world. For me, it was that easy, even though I knew that wasn't an option to the people who lived there. For them, it was a twisted history that went back as far as time and showed no chance of changing before the pastor said the last words over the casket. But, I made up my mind early, before the marches, the dogs, the water cannons and all of the prayers and to this day I have held fast to my younger self's pledge. I haven't yet, and I never will. I just feel like I can't go back now. Even now, I can't go back there."

Stumble It!

She said: Sometimes I feel as though I might have missed some part of my life. There seem to be more people who claim to know me than I can claim to know. Maybe it's because I look like a lot of people look, which is to say maybe I just look like everyone else and that there isn't anything unique about how I look or how I dress. Maybe that's what allows people that I don't think I know to come up to me and say with a big old smile on their face "Well, Hello"! Of course, I always say "Hello" back to them, even when I don't know who they are. Maybe the world is just full of friendly, happy people who just say "Hi!" to everyone they see. That would make me pretty tired by the end of the day, but maybe I just don't have the verve that others have. I don't know. Sometimes it creeps me out, but on other days, it gives me a boost to know that so many people know me in a good way and not just because I'm a movie star."

Stumble It!

He said: "The Elephant followed him everywhere, always six to eight feet behind him. Of course, the two of them together made quite a specticle, especially inside of elevators or on the subway. He couldn't remember why, exactly, it came about that his closest friend would be a white elephant, but there was no getting away from the fact that the elephant was not a temporary piece of unpleasant luggage but a kind of soul mate.. He and the elephant were one now. Where one went, the other had to follow. It became like an a so-so marriage, you know the kind, where neither party gets along too very well with the other. But, they make accommodations and it seems to all work out somehow. See? There are many things that are odd or strange, or unique that somehow, over time, work themselves out somehow and everyone just soldiers on. We abide, don't we?"

Stumble It!

She said: "Sometimes I wonder how people can live out there, in that open emptiness, on the edge of nowhere, surrounded by strip malls and a kind of neutral solitude that feels like nothing more than a forced quietude and a dim memory of some other place, where even the trees lay down quietly to die."

Stumble It!

He said: "The Vets that I knew were missing something. It would be trite to state that they had lost their soul, because it was more than just that kind of abstraction. They came back different people than the ones that had been sent over there. On the surface, they seemed like the person that they were before the war, but underneath they had changed. There were subtle signs that told of the damage they had suffered as a person: some could not sleep, others closed down into themselves into a place that no one could find or get to. Others took up drugs or drink. Some times these grown men would begin weeping for no apparent reason. Others became violent and lashed out at the ones they loved or just whoever was present then. All of them struggled to regain themselves, but it wasn't hard to tell who was who; it wasn't hard to see that they were different, that they were hurting and that they knew that there would be no turning back, that there would not be a homecoming for them because they left so much of themselves behind back there."

Stumble It!

She said: "It was a sign, I'm certain of that much at least. It was a sign that it was time to straighten up and fly right. It was frightening. I shook for an hour, I swear, after I saw it. It is a sign, if not from God, from something, and if not for us, then for someone. There can be no mistake. It's not natural. You don't just run into an arm, or a hand, like that. It was just there. Just there on the tree. All by itself, without blood or anything. Like it was part of the tree and had grown there. All by itself. It sure enough is some kind of a sign."

Stumble It!

He said: "I realized one morning, that what I had was not enough. It seemed to me that I didn't have the life that other people had; that my life wasn't as rich or as varied or as lyrical as other people's and this made me sad. I wanted to have a life and dream the dreams that other people had and dreamed, but try as I may, I was powerless to change my life. It continued as it always had. So, I worked harder. I observed more closely, listened more intensely, lingered where other people gathered and learned from them. I began to change slowly. Realizing that, I worked harder and over time my life began to change radically. I became another person, and my secret was simple: I have successfully made other people's memories my own. I have found the way to a meaningful life! I take the dreams of others and make them my own."

Stumble It!