A reflective spoken-word essay on childhood wonder, nostalgia, and the quiet work of reclaiming imagination as adults during the holiday season.
Category Archives: Prose
Protected: The Origin of The Storyteller
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Yellow Footprints
Every Marine starts the same way — feet on painted yellow footprints, eyes forward, past erased. But behind the posture and precision lies a quiet war between identity and conformity, individuality and brotherhood. Those steps mark the beginning of something more than training — they mark transformation.
The Theater: An Allegory Up In Smoke
What starts as a single match strike grows into a conflagration of defiance, indulgence and decay. This is the smoke-filled theater we are choking in today.
Baseball: Harmony in Time and Statistics
Baseball isn’t just a pastime — it’s the passing of time. A ritual played in discrete innings decoupled from time. A game with no clock, but endless permutations. Its baked-in mathematics has long made it the sport of philosophers, statisticians, and anyone enchanted by patterns hiding in plain sight. At its core, baseball resonates withContinue reading “Baseball: Harmony in Time and Statistics”
Climbing the Digital Beanstalk: The Perils and Promise of Modern Connectivity
This post explores the paradox of the digital age, where technology empowers us with limitless knowledge and instant connectivity but also burdens us with dependency and a loss of deeper contemplation. It delves into the trade-offs between convenience and critical thinking, questioning whether we have sacrificed genuine understanding and connection for the fleeting rewards of modern digital tools.
Evolving Ideals: My Journey from Right to Left
Joe Mannino shares his journey from a devout Catholic and staunch Republican to a self-guided moral life and Democrat. He highlights his experiences in the Marines, tech preferences, and evolving political beliefs, emphasizing the importance of understanding the stories that shape our philosophies.
Vito’s Legacy Workshop
Sometime early last spring, I impulse bought a totally gnarly, steampunk-inspired Nixie Tube clock from that bastion of truth in advertising platform, Facebook. I bought a clock; I received a kit. Not right away, mind you. Oh no, it took eight weeks for them to send me the tubes, circuit board, and a ramshackle pileContinue reading “Vito’s Legacy Workshop”
Anti-Claus
Christmastime, it seems to me, has become an increasingly melancholy holiday as of late. Despite my best intentions, the older I get, the deeper the ache seems to resonate. Perhaps it’s the weight of decades of exhausted anticipation, spent reverie, and cumulative disappointment that has taken its toll, resulting in a profound numbness that canContinue reading “Anti-Claus”
Dominate Your Lane
Why you should never pay the two dollars About 20 minutes into the ultimate celebration of 1980’s teenage malaise, “Better Off Dead,” the protagonist encounters Johnny, the vaguely mafioso paperboy who demands “Two Dollars” for what has already been established to be shoddy service. When at first Lane Meyers merely disregards the demand, it’s throughoutContinue reading “Dominate Your Lane”
Mannino Acid 