A Cold Self, Change by John Coats

A Cold Self

Eddie’s dad was a psychopath who delighted in cruelty to his children and their friends and one night when we were twenty-one he pushed us, pushed me, too far and a cold, cold self I didn’t recognize decided that if he took two more steps toward me I’d kill him.

Changes

Old age and illness and passing of lifelong friends work on my awareness of life and death and injury, even that of the damn plants. I’m vegan now by necessity and like never before find myself dancing around the wild grasses and wildflowers that are alive and longing to live as I long to live. I step on this or that one and pause. Damn. Sorry, buddy.

Artist statement: I want my writing to be participative, self-revealing, sacrificial--an offering, a calling out to the reader to do the same.

John has a Bachelor's degree, an M.Div from Virginia Theological Seminary (Episcopal), and an MFA in creative writing from Bennington College. Having served eight years as a parish priest in Texas and California, he joined a startup training organization, The Life Training, now called More To Life. After fifteen years as a principal speaker and trainer in the United States, Britain, and South Africa, John left the program and worked the next eight years as a management consultant. Then the writing bug bit and wouldn't let go. He is the author of Original Sinners, Why Genesis Still Matters (Free Press/Simon and Schuster, 2009), a non-religious exploration of the characters in the Book of Genesis. From 2014-2021, he was a fiction editor and book reviewer for Consequence Magazine.