Angels and Monsters

It's all happening so fast. My life is a speeding train and I'm not sure where it's headed. One thing is certain, I've been given a second chance, touched by God and I've got to believe that he has a purpose for my life. So why am I filled with self-doubt? Plagued by demons, real and imaginary? Frightened by the challenges ahead, and haunted by the ghosts of my past? Does God know what I am? Do I? Am I an angel, or a monster? A hero, or a villain? And why can't I see the difference?

One of Us, One of Them

In the ongoing search for self, there are days when we learn something genuinely new. Something uncovered, hidden, that we never knew was there. Something that surprises us. And on that day of self-discovery, the question remains: What kind of person are we? Does the hero, or the villain inside us, win the day?

And as the search for self continues, we look for answers everywhere. In nature, in God, in tiny tragedies that may never be understood. But still, we are driven to it, single-minded on one goal: to find our purpose on this earth. No matter what the ramifications, the friendships that may be hurt, or the deals with the devil we need to make.

Four Months Ago...

It is man's ability to remember that sets us apart. We are the only species concerned with the past. Our memories give us voice, and bear witness to history, so that others might learn, so they might celebrate our triumphs, and be warned of our failures.

There are many ways to define our fragile existence, many ways to give it meaning. But it is our memories that shape its purpose and give it context: the private assortment of images, fears, loves, regrets. For it is the cruel irony of life that we are destined to hold the dark with the light, the good with the evil, success with disappointment. This is what separates us, what makes us human. And in the end, we must fight to hold on to.

Fight or Flight

When confronted by our worst nightmares, the choices are few: fight, or flight. We hope to find the strength to stand against our fears but sometimes, despite ourselves, we run. What if the nightmare gives chase? Where can we hide then?

Four Months Later

The sun rises on a new dawn. Yet few of us realize the debt we owe to those responsible for this. To those who dwell among us, anonymous, seemingly ordinary. Whom destiny brought together to repair, to heal, to save us from ourselves. And they're still out there among us. In the shadows. In the light. We pass them on the street without a glance. Never suspecting, never knowing. Do they even know yet? That they are bound together by a common purpose? A glaring reality to be extraordinary. And when destiny does unite them, how do they hide from it? How long can they dwell in the shadows before either fate, or their own flawed humanity draws them out in to the light again? And how will they know what awaits them when it finally does?

How To Stop an Exploding Man

Where does it come from—this quest, this need to solve life's mysteries when the simplest of questions can never be answered? Why are we here? What is the soul? Why do we dream? Perhaps we'd be better off not looking at all. Not delving, not yearning. But that's not human nature. Not the human heart. That is not why we are here. Yet still we struggle to make a difference, to change the world, to dream of hope; never knowing for certain whom we will meet along the way. Who among the world of strangers will hold our hand, touch our hearts, and share the pain of trying?

We dream of hope, we dream of change, of fire, of love, of death. And then it happens; the dream becomes real, and the answer to this quest, this need to solve life's mysteries finally shows itself like the glowing light of the new dawn. So much struggle for meaning, for purpose. And in the end, we find it only in each other. Our shared experience of the fantastic and the mundane. The simple human need to find a kindred. To connect. And to know in our hearts... that we are not alone.

0.7%

People think I collect art. What I really collect are lives fixed in paint. The perfect moment capturing an entire existence, made immortal. A monster's fight to survive, and live to kill again. A mother willing to fracture her own soul to protect her child. A youth's struggle for innocence, despite life's cruelty. The double-edged lies needed to sustain a double-edged life. A wondering hero's pure joy at success — and his darkest hour, when all the world seems lost. All perfect moments frozen in time. Alone, each tells a single story. Together, they can tell the future.

Run!

To survive in this world, we hold close to us those people on whom we depend. We trust in them our hopes, our fears. But what happens when trust is lost? Where do we run when things we believe in vanish before our eyes? When all seems lost, the future unknowable, our very existence in peril... all we can do is run.

The Fix

When we embrace what lies within, our potential has no limit. The future is filled with promise; the present rife with expectation. When we deny our instinct, and struggle against our deepest urges, uncertainty begins. Where does this path lead? When will the changes end? Is this transformation a gift or a curse? For those who fear what lies ahead, the most important question of all: Can we ever really change what we are?

Godsend

In the beginning there was discovery. A confusion of elements. The first snowfall of impossible change. Old lives undone - left behind. Strange faces made familiar. New nightmares to challenge sleep. New friends to feel safe with. Only then comes control - the need to impose order unto chaos. Through determination, through study, through struggle... all in defiance of a thundering truth. They're here, and the earth shudders under foot.

Six Months Ago

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose. The earth spins at a thousand miles an hour as we desperately try to keep from being thrown off, like the first blush of winter that signals the great migration. Is there any warning for their arrival? A sign? A single event that set this chain into motion? Was it a whisper in God’s ear? Survive. Adapt. Escape. And if we could mark that single moment in time – that first hint of the prophecy of approaching danger… if we had done anything differently, could it have been stopped? Or was the die long ago cast? And if we could go back, alter its course, stop it from happening, would we?

These people – their future is written on their DNA. Just as the past, it seems, is written in stone. Was the die cast from the very beginning, or is it in our own hands to alter the course of destiny? Of all our abilities, it is free will that truly makes us unique. With it, we have a tiny but potent chance to deny fate. And only with it can we find our way back to being human.

Homecoming

We are, if anything, creatures of habit. Drawn to the safety and comfort of the familiar. But what happens when the familiar becomes unsafe? When the fear that we have desperately been trying to avoid finds us where we live?

We are all, at our cores, the sum of our fears. To embrace destiny, we must inevitably face those fears, and conquer them, whether they come from the familiar or the unknown.

Seven Minutes to Midnight

The earth is large — large enough that you think you can hide from anything. From fate, from god — if only you found a place far enough away. So you run. To the edge of the earth, where all is safe again — quiet and warm. The solace of salt air. The peace of danger left behind. The luxury of grief. And maybe for a moment you believe you have escaped.

You can run far. You can take your small precautions, but have you really gotten away? Can you ever escape? Or is the truth that you do not have the strength or cunning to hide from destiny? But the world is not small, you are. And fate can find you anywhere.

Nothing to Hide

You do not choose your destiny; it chooses you, and those who knew you before fate took you by the hand can not understand the depth of the changes inside. They cannot fathom how much you stand to lose in failure. That you are the instrument of a flawless design, and all of life may hang in the balance. The hero learns quickly who can comprehend and who merely stands in your way.

Better Halves

Evolution is an imperfect and often violent process. A battle between what exists and what is yet to be born. In the midst of these birth pains, morality loses its meaning, the question of good and evil reduced to one simple choice: survive or perish.

Hiros

When a change comes, some species feel the urge to migrate. They call it zugunruhe, a pull of the soul to a far off place. Following a scent in the wind, a star in the sky. The ancient message comes calling the kindred to take flight and gather together. Only then can they hope to survive the cruel season to come.

Collision

Sometimes questions are more powerful than answers. How is this happening? What are they? Why them and not others? Why now? What does it all mean?

One Giant Leap

When evolution selects its agents, it does so at a cost. It makes demands in exchange for singularity, and you may be asked to do something against your very nature. Suddenly, the change in your life that should have been wonderful comes as a betrayal. It may seem cruel, but the goal is nothing short of self-preservation, survival.

This force, evolution, is not sentimental. Like the earth itself, it knows only the hard facts of life's struggle with death. All you can do is hope and trust that when you've served its needs faithfully, there may still remain some glimmer of the life you once knew.

Don't Look Back

We all imagine ourselves the agents of our destiny, capable of determining our own fate. But have we truly any choice in when we rise or when we fall? Or does a force larger than ourselves bid us our direction? Is it evolution that takes us by the hand? Does science point our way? Or is it God who intervenes, keeping us safe?

For all his bluster, it is the sad providence of man that he cannot choose his triumph. He can only choose how he will stand when the call of destiny comes, hoping that he will have the courage to answer.

Genesis

Where does it come from—this quest, this need to solve life's mysteries when the simplest of questions can never be answered? Why are we here? What is the soul? Why do we dream? Perhaps we'd be better off not looking at all. Not delving, not yearning. But that's not human nature. Not the human heart. That is not why we are here.

This quest, this need to solve life's mysteries—in the end, what does it matter when the human heart can only find meaning in the smallest of moments? They're here—among us. In the shadows, in the light, everywhere. Do they even know yet?