HOW MANY LIVES HAVE YOU LIVED? A child, an adolescent, a man. A student, a cadet, a beat cop. A homicide detective, a husband, a father. And now a widower, and a father who had lost his child. So many different lives. The pain of it, the images, I don't want to see them again, but there they are: how I imagine it happened. What I imagine it was like. Putting them together, because this is what I do. I've seen it before, I know, and you always think it's going to be someone else, you never think it's going to be someone you know. You think the odds are too far against it. You tell yourself,...

IN THE MISTS OF THE MORNING, I HAVE MET MY DEATH A samurai spirit with a blade of words, I have roamed plains of consciousness, seeking truth and slaying illusions. All is impermanent, imperfect, and incomplete. In the vast river of existence, there is a serene melancholy and a spiritual longing which pervades all. Yet all is not lost, for it is only in being lost, that we are found. It is only in imperfection, that we find perfection; in brokenness, the unbroken. We are necessarily confused, before we are clear. That which is lasting, and perfect, and beautiful surrounds us, all of the time....

WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO LIVE? Surely he must be some kind of fool. Trying to prove his manhood; trying to fit in? Coming because Theresa had come. Sweet and beautiful, Theresa. Wanting to be near her; wanting to be with her. Not wanting to be the one person who said, "No, no thank you. I'm afraid. I don't like tight places. Always been a touch claustrophobic." "Spelunking? What's spelunking?" Theresa asks. The steps, all of the pieces that had to fall into place to get them where they were, they flash through his mind - an ocean of panic, held back by a barrier which was breaking, into terror....

WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN WHEN YOU DIE? Life is too good for Michael Sojourner to stop and think about it. He's got it all: a home in the hills, fancy cars, a nice bank account. Producing movies in Hollywood, he even gets to date a lot of hopeful starlets. Life couldn't be better for Michael Sojourner, at least until, after a long night of drinking, he wakes up and, where the hell is he? On a dirt floor, in a hallway. The last thing he remembers, he'd been going home with another hopeful starlet. Maybe she'd slipped him something then dumped him. His Rolex was missing, his iPhone was missing,...

WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO GIVE UP FOR LOVE? He's a lonely waiter. She's a rich heiress. He's younger, twenty-eight, and she's a little bit older, but not too much older. He doesn't know what he's doing with his life. He's lost; he's been struggling. There is some hole within him, some void, which he knows has everything to do with how he was raised and with the fact that he was adopted. Some deep sense of rejection; of not being wanted. Would he be rejected again, as he was rejected by his biological mother when he was so young? He feels like he carries this within him, a memory from that very...

WHAT ARE THE LESSONS I HAVE LEARNED IN MY LIFE? And what did I have to do, what did I have to go through, to learn them? What happens isn't as important as how we relate to what happens; the only true wealth any of us ever have is time; there is so much to be grateful for if you just stop and look; perspective is everything; the most important things in life aren't things at all; what you do to others, you do to yourself; treating other people decently and living with compassion and kindness and tolerance and consideration are all important; everyone around you, your whole life, is just a...

Who Is It That Lives With You? Brookstone, Colorado. Picturesque. Beautiful. The Rockies; a gorgeous lake. Winter skiing. It's an idyllic place to live, until someone begins murdering people, brutally. Who would do this kind of thing, and could it by my neighbor, that strange man who lives by himself two houses down? Could it be the janitor at work, or this man walking towards me on the street, his hands shoved deeply into his pockets? Who is it, that lives here amongst us? The twists and turns that life can take: after serving in the war then working homicide in Dallas, Terence Mosi ends up...

What Is Beyond Your Greatest Sorrow? Losing his parents when he was nineteen, Douglas now lives in the place of his sorrows: the house he'd lived in as a kid, his parents gone and his dreams broken. It's not all blight; not all darkness. He has his dogs, and his roommates, and a job, and he enjoys riding his bicycle, fast, through the streets of San Francisco. There is loss, there is grief, there are ways in which you wish life was different, but you go on, and you come to terms with things, and you still have good times. A beauty arises in the midst of your sorrows, you start to think that...

What Are You Willing To Do To Get What You Want? Perhaps the most important thing about Cory Boatright was that he had an affable personality. Life was hard, the odds were against him, but that was okay because he was still enjoying himself. He had an easy smile and a nice laugh. He joked around with people, he chatted easily, and he could also be serious. He was good looking, smart, cool, calm and collected. A Stanford graduate with top honors in literature, he was now working as a waiter in Los Angeles, trying to make it as an actor and meeting all kinds of people, like Howard - a bumbling...

What Is It That Leaves You Breathless? Moments of beauty; moments of loss. It was funny how both of these things could take your breath away: life's beauty, and life's losses. It was like getting punched in the gut, losing those that you loved. You found yourself on the ground, decimated and wondering if you could ever go on. How could you go on, but how could you not go on? What was the alternative, suicide? That was no alternative for Charlie McAllister, and so he was going on, day by day, moment by moment. The saddest book ever written, that's what his life would be, if he was to put it...