Author Archives: johndiestler

(An updated post from 2024) I’ve been here before, or so it feels. Maybe it’s the flickering neon sign of Pizza Palace casting its red glow across the parking lot. Maybe it’s the memory of sitting there night after night … Continue reading →

(Re-posting from 2018) I just used the WordPress feature of tracking the access of my blog posts. It isn’t that time consuming, haha, hardly a dozen eyeballs a week find my posts. Notice I didn’t say read and comment! Anyway, … Continue reading →

This image appeared in a Facebook post. A striking profile of a young woman, rendered in a style that fuses the raw psychological intensity of Egon Schiele with the ornate, mosaic-like decorative sensibility of Gustav Klimt. Her dark hair is … Continue reading →

Just a quick look at significant gate-keeping within my personal memory. Biblical scholarship has long been more than a hobby for me, though less than formal academic scholarship. Still, curiosity has a way of pushing a person into deep water, … Continue reading →

We document our joys. Sometimes we write about them and tuck the words away on a hard drive or in a notebook. Sometimes we capture them with a camera. Then, often years later and by happy accident, we stumble across … Continue reading →

Bags and bags of springs, their ends straight, with the springy part in the middle. My pay depended on the pound of completed bent springs.  It was a monotonous task, but one I could manage from home, offering flexibility in … Continue reading →

This is always a mental challenge, because my answer is never settled. It depends. For years, the answer was selfish. That sounds harsh, but it follows a kind of logic: if there is no more me, then what remains doesn’t … Continue reading →

In military theory, there is a ratio called ‘T-to-T’, or ‘Tooth to Tail’. It is the ratio of how many men are in combat compared to how many men are in supported roles. Everyone is in uniform. Everyone is a … Continue reading →

The Words When the world is too much with me, the words are the first to go. The words do not come. Like a pet, they slink into the corner, ears flat. They think I don’t notice when they lean … Continue reading →

(this is an updated post from a few years ago.) It’s true—I love photography. I’ve also spent years helping students make stronger, more intentional images. I say “helping” because most of the real learning is self-driven. Students learn by doing—in … Continue reading →