Installment One of “A Tale of Two Souls,” the journey of two souls on the road to one — Author’s Note Muscle and Bone This story begins thirty-six years ago in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and ends twenty-seven years ago in San Diego. That makes it difficult for me, the storyteller, to recount a continuous history. Instead. I have a broken sequence of memories of discrete instances across that time. The best description I can give…

Stories, essays, and articles — From The Desk Of Phillip Steven (“Alex”) Alexander A Short, Tongue-In-Cheek ‘Writer’s Bio’medium.com Memoir — The Coming of Age of A Gay Baby Boomer Reminiscences of 1970s D.C. A gay young buck’s coming-of-age stories of life, love, loss, and griefstevealexander-48.medium.com Reminiscences of 1970s San Francisco Stories of a gay, late twenty-somethings escapades in life, loving, and lossstevealexander-48.medium.com

Installment Twenty-Three of A Tale of Two Souls, the journey of two souls on the road to one Installment 23 Chapter Six The Remainder of the Tale Stop My Seed Arising, Peroration, One Soul to Rule Them All, & You Are the Reflection of My Soul Stop My Seed Arising Weeks or perhaps months later in a period when I was…

Installment Twenty-Two of A Tale of Two Souls, the journey of two souls on the road to one — Installment 22 Chapter Six The Remainder of the Tale An Encounter with the Ethereal An Encounter with the Ethereal I remember little of what I did after that. It was all mundane, as had been everything since they carried him out the front door. The Requiem had long since run its course. I shut down the stereo and closed the doors and…

Installment Twenty-one of A Tale of Two Souls, the journey of two souls on the road to one — Installment 21 Chapter Six The Remainder of the Tale Memorial and Burial (part 2), Headstone, and Aftermath Memorial and Burial (part 2) His family hadn’t waited for me. The graveside ceremony was well underway. The Baptist preacher was doing his thing. I walked up to the rear of the bleached-white canopy erected over the grave. I stood alone, forgotten — the unseen…

Installment Twenty of A Tale of Two Souls, the journey of two souls on the road to one — Installment 20 Chapter Six The Remainder of the Tale Memorial and Burial (part 1) Memorial and Burial (part 1) I went to neither the little open-casket memorial viewing our friends had in San Diego nor the celebration of life that followed. Many of his co-workers from the hospital attended. His closest friend there, Jeannette, went. She would later fly with me to…

Installment Nineteen of A Tale of Two Souls, the journey of two souls on the road to one — Installment 19 Chapter Five After Gavin The Ring (part 2), The Final Illness, April 28, 1995, & It Will Get Easier The Ring (part 2) The ring had symbolic significance. The two yellow gold spans at the top represented Loy and me close together but separated. Follow the band around to the underside, though, and one would see…

Installment Eighteen of A Tale of Two Souls, the journey of two souls on the road to one — Installment Eighteen Chapter Four The Conversation — Part Two Afterwords (part 2) Chapter Five After Gavin Treasure, The Last Christmas, & The Ring (part 1) Afterwords (part 2) I sat down on the edge of the bed. He stretched out and pulled me down on my left side with my back to him. He reached around my chest with his long, brawny arm and…

Civil disobedience in schools is the only tactic that will stop school shootings — On April 20, 1999, in the first of seven school shootings that year, two heavily armed teenage boys fired indiscriminately at fellow students and school staff injuring 21 and killing 13. Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado., was…