ICARUS NEVER FLEW 'ROUND HERE
Dale Samuel speaks to the horizon.
Years of living and ranching in the lonely and desolate Oregon High Desert has given Dale plenty of time to think. He specifically ruminates and wrestles with the idea of whether he and his wife Janice are cursed like all of humankind, or if somehow they are different, special even. Armed with only a thimble full of theological understanding, Dale must figure out whether he indeed has a preordained essence or if he simply exists, and what the consequences of either would be.
Dale’s inevitable descent into frustration and erratic behavior illustrates the irony that so many of us are guilty of: when we try to emulate the idea of god that we’ve developed in our mind based mostly on intuition, we end up becoming servile to an idea, the results of which often ripple and reverberate in disastrous ways.
The only question is, does the horizon say anything back?
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WAYS and TRUTHS and LIVES
James Dall attends church every Sunday even though he stopped believing in the Christian God years ago; he says it’s for the free coffee. A 29-year-old who waits tables when he’s not writing for a smalltime local newspaper, James considers himself a successful author who simply hasn’t caught his big break yet, despite the fact he hasn’t even finished his first novel.
Ways and Truths and Lives follows James closely for the three most pivotal weeks of adult life he never saw coming. A creature of routine and consistency, James is forced to navigate a chaotic confluence of tantalizing dream women, career opportunities in other cities, ex-girlfriends seeking closure, mothers begging for grandchildren, suddenly flirtatious coworkers, and fathers who were never there. James’ newfound focus on the answer has him listening to the combined wisdom of bartenders and pastors, surrealists and editors, poetry and pornography, and whiskey and IPA.
Through James, Ways and Truths and Lives examines the difficulty of escaping a myopic worldview you were born into and finding comfort in the idea of ‘an answer’ as opposed to ‘the answer’.