Short Stories 
USPEND YOUR RATIONAL mind for a while, if you will, as you read the stories in this collection. Let yourself enjoy the irrationality of a businessman who chucks everything to go begging, a six-year-old boy who learns for the first time how it feels to be late to school, a fourteen-year-old boy who builds his own catamaran with mixed success, a young mental hospital orderly's rambling consciousness, a young rooster who refuses to accept undeserved accolades from the hens, a half-human, half-motorcycle motorcentaur on a serious joyride in the desert, a farmer who innerly berates his careless son for spilling a wagon load of corn on the road, a waitressing farmer's wife who endures a truck stop robbery, and a young rural swindler who finds forgiveness among the surrounding farmers.
Several of these stories were written around 1968 and revised in 1996. If you can suspend your rationality and disbelief, perhaps they will do something for you. Something good, let's hope. Your feedback is welcome at
--Alan Harris
Short Stories in This Collection
The 1943 Munster Bombing Raid
In the words of B-17 Pilot Keith E. Harris (1919-1980)
Keith E. Harris (father of Alan Harris) of the USAF 390th Bomb Group recounts theB-17 bombing raid over Munster, Germany on October 10, 1943 in which he was flying on special assignment with the 100th Bomb Group. He tape-recorded this story in the 1970's, and the tape was discovered after his death in 1980.
Air Force Odyssey Before Flying B-17s
In the words of B-17 Pilot Keith E. Harris (1919-1980)
Keith E. Harris (father of Alan Harris) of the USAF 390th Bomb Group recounts his unusual experiences on first joining the Air Force in 1940-1942 and the events which led to his becoming a B-17 pilot in World War II. He tape-recorded this story in the 1970's, and the tape was discovered after his death in 1980.
Hail Rain Well Met
No Poem about No Good Sense
Presuming to outguess Illinois weather in May results in a soggy embarrassment which nevertheless stimulates a few poetic and philosophical thoughts.
Keith E. Harris World War II Scrapbook
A B-17 Pilot's Mementos from the War
Keith E. Harris (father of Alan Harris) of the USAF 390th Bomb Group had an eventful military career in World War II. Margie, his wife, kept newspaper clippings, photos, and other memorabilia in this scrapbook, scanned from original documents by another son, Dale Harris.
Lessons Out of School
Ten Anecdotes from Childhood
Acrobat PDF Version
Growing up in a small Illinois town was neither as safe nor as dull as one might suppose. Intended for both musing and amusement, each of these ten anecdotes not only tells a story but also concludes with a lesson learned outside of school. Some of the lessons repeat themselves in different stories.
The Raid on Frank's Cigar Store
A True Story of Ice Cream and Justice
On September 25, 1974 I walked across the street to Frank's Cigar Store during lunch hour to buy some ice cream, as was my daily vice. But this time, instead of the usual warm Mom and Pop reception, I was confronted by some detectives who were none too warm.
A Farewell to the Piano
Fifteen Memorized Minutes
A piano student at a music conservatory has become disenchanted with the contrast between academic requirements and authentic quality. An unwelcome crisis looms ahead--his being required to play fifteen minutes of memorized piano music before a jury of piano faculty members. The unorthodox performance he stages, together with its Zen underpinnings, bewilders his piano teacher and the jury.
The Load of Corn Errors and Ingenuity
A feisty farmer discovers, to his intense chagrin, that his son has driven their tractor around a corner too fast while hauling a wagon load of shelled corn, causing the wagon to partially break and spill corn onto the gravel road. The farmer and his son match wits and mask their helpless feelings as they attempt to figure out how to tow this wagon back to their farm with the least loss of corn and self-esteem.
The Time I Was Late Initiation into Chronology
A six-year-old suddenly realizes that all of his carefully constructed goodnesses are now at risk this snowy December day when he is leaving home too late to make it to school on time. He has never been late, and he goes to great lengths to arrive on time in spite of all the obstacles.
The Motorcentaur Creating Nothingness
In the emptiness of the desert a strange creature, half human and half motorcycle, performs with chilling thoroughness a daring ritual designed to create pure nothingness. The ritual, however, does not quite succeed.
Maiden Voyage An Adolescent Noah
14-year-old Tom Summers, bored during his summer vacation, decides to build his own personal catamaran (a floating device) by following the plans in a library book. His eventual launch meets with mixed success, and he chafes under his father's told-you-so reactions.
Across the River A Fantasy on Begging
In this somewhat surreal story, a commuter who is fed up with his rigid routine suddenly "loses it" while driving home from work. He decides to renounce his conventional life patterns, abandons his car by the roadside, and walks aimlessly until he comes to a bridge and looks over the railing down into the dark water. But that's only the beginning.
Chester the Rooster A Fable of Chicken Bravery
Chester, a complex young rooster, finds himself praised for an act of bravery which he committed while asleep. This story employs subtle humor and "gentle reader" asides by the "voice" of the story to stimulate the reader's imagination.
Lemonade and Seed Corn A Rural Money-Grabber
Farmer Jack's son Clarence doesn't fit the mold of honest, laid-back farmers. He likes the dollar a little too well. A neighboring farmer briefly tells the story of how Clarence operates.
Pin Money A Truck Stop Adventure
Farmer Jack's wife Mabel feels obliged to make extra money when the farm income diminishes. She takes a job at the local truck stop restaurant as a waitress, and soon experiences a robbery which brings out the irrational in her.
Uncle Frank Atherton Recalls Earlville IL Farmer Describes Life in the Old Days
Frank Atherton, my mother's mother's brother, was a farmer in Earlville, Illinois for many years. At 83 when this interview was conducted, he had a sharp memory for Earlville's and his own personal past. This story, which I wrote for the Ottawa, Illinois Daily Times in 1974, reveals little-known facts about farming in the first half of the 20th century.
The Accident A Morning's Mindstream
An orderly in a mental hospital arises in the morning, eats breakfast with his wife, drives to work in Peoria, Illinois, and has a fender bender. However simple the plot, this story consists not so much of the externals as the stream of consciousness revealed by this complex young man.
Essays 
HE WORLD hardly ever asks for more essays, having plenty of them already. Too bad, world. Here are a few more of those "literary trial balloons."
No essay in this collection was written by request, either academic or otherwise. Instead, each came as "required writing" from some inner place that governs how a writer spends his time.
Subjects that are perennially significant to many of us (crisis, suicide, peace, fame, love, indecision, and others) are considered in these essays from psychological and spiritual points of view.
Whether you are in the process of putting your mind together by means of life's everyday education process, or putting back together a mind broken by some mistakes or an illness, you may find here a few insights that surprise, encourage, or inspire. Most of the selections listed below are basically serious, but humor has been allowed to poke its head into the proceedings at any time.
Please enjoy these essays in the spirit in which they were written, if you can determine what that spirit was. Your feedback is welcome at
--Alan Harris
Essays in This Collection
The Blessing I Would Ask For The Gates of Consciousness
The barriers between the higher mind and lower mind of a person are seen as "Gates" which need to open for inner spiritual communion.
Contemplating September 11, 2001 Wiping Dust from Our Eyes
As we rebound from the attacks on America, this essay suggests that evil is self-limiting because of its blind assumptions, and that the unity of humanity is not just an ideal, but an emerging fact.
A Reply from the World Bureau of Fame Advice from the Director
I. M. Presser, through hard work and sacrifice, has applied for fame. A reply from the Director of the World Bureau of Fame informs the applicant of fame's prerequisites, and gives him an opportunity to reconsider his application.
The Inner Web A Communion of Aspirations
This essay examines the value of the World Wide Web and the Internet as tools humanity may use for growing into increased unity and mutual affirmation.
Seeking Truth A Dialogue
In the course of this offbeat conversation, two people examine the value, if any, of seeking truth in the teachings of others.
Quality: 11 Glimpses Seeing the Unseeable
These eleven aphorisms do not define quality, but instead, suggest its nature through Zen-like poetic glimpses.
Trusting Emotions Are We Safe in Them?
Are emotions to be trusted to guide us through the vicissitudes of living? And if we are safe in our emotions, what is it that undergirds that safety? If we don't feel safe, is it a good idea to hold emotions at arm's length and not get involved in them?
Cottonwood Seeds Airborne Immortality?
Musing on flurries of cottonwood seeds in an irregular breeze leads to considerations of immortality. However encompassing or small we see our life's container, are we safe from the abyss? Or are we forever in it?
Clouds A Study in One Act
This poetic essay follows some puffy clouds as seen through a window into fantasies on how trees and people may also be clouds freely drifting through their lives.
Questions for Making a Decision Crossroads Considerations
Making good decisions often requires asking oneself probing questions. The ones offered here represent only a few of the many which one might ask (sorry, no outcome guarantees).
Crisis: Its Causes and Effects From Ignorance to Freedom
Crisis is treated as not only the painful outcome of unawareness but also a valuable opportunity for deepening and strengthening one's character.
Where is Love? A Perilous Search
A search for love of any kind may lead, oddly enough, to disappointments and personal disasters. What is the danger in looking for love? Can love be found at all?
Suicide and the Agony of Separateness When the Ego Becomes an Eggshell
Often, suicide attempters suffer from separative assumptions that spiral them into an agony which they feel can be more easily ended by killing their bodies than by modifying their minds. This essay presents some alternatives to annihilation.
Peace Its Inner Hiding Places
Photographic Version
This lyrical essay suggests that peace may be fully experienced through opportunities in one's everyday existence. The fountain source of peace, however, remains a beautiful mystery.
Front Yards What the World Sees
This whimsical essay examines what people try to display to the world contrasted with what feels more comfortable and genuine to them.
Rediscovering Depth Trees versus Technology
Twilight trees seen after several hours spent at a computer reveal a shallowness in high technology.
Coming Home from the Parade Can We Live Without Images?
Images give life to our minds, but also trap our minds. How do we know when we have been trapped, and can we do anything about it if we are?
The Scrooge Before Christmas Crying Out for Breath Amidst the Tinsel
The much-maligned Scrooge may be wishing and searching for something holier than the suffocating superficiality he experiences during the Christmas season. What does he seek, and does he ever find it?
Intelligence "Out There" Will Outer Space Be Found Within?
The nature of intelligence has long been associated with each person's separate body and brain. This essay presents an unusual hypothesis which, if true, indicates that our current well-publicized search for extraterrestrial intelligence may be superfluous.
Echoes of Earlville Home Town Hankerings
Railroad sounds and rural scenes from Earlville, Illinois, the author's home town, fill this iambic essay with poetic reminiscences and a look ahead.
Thoughtlets for a Quiet Mood Spontaneous Brevities
Photographic Version: Thoughts Along a Winter's Walk
Whether these musings seem surprising, wacky, useful, or inspiring, they may softly slip into your right-brain and make a home there.
Ventilating the House of Knowing To Know or To Flow?
Knowing can lead us to crackups if it isn't irrigated from the universal well of unknowing. The "known" represents only a tiny percentage of reality, whereas almost everything that is fertile, creative, and beautiful emanates from the limitless "unknown."
Fiddlers' Campground Impressions Weiser, Idaho - June 20, 1996
Take a short guided tour through a campground that is dotted with pickup bands who strum and bow traditional country tunes for pickup audiences. Many of the fiddlers are in town this week aspiring to be the National Grand Champion Fiddler. They won't all make it, but their interim musical sharing in the twilight invites you to forget about competition and just drink in the sounds.
18 Rules To Take or Leave
Here are 18 two-word rules given more as proddings than as prescriptions. Yes, the last rule is correct as it stands, being perhaps the most reliable of them all.
Aladdin's lamp at top by Martien Verbruggen.