Tom Painting

In the Thick of It

I awoke this morning thinking of quicksand and how it was an element in so many of the Westerns I watched as a kid. Usually, the bad guy stumbled in. Occasionally the good guy and once I recall a woman stuck in the goo, but the hero managed to pull her out with a rope tied to his trusty horse. I’m in my 70s now and find myself thinking about many of the things that impressed me as a kid; most of the terrifying stuff. Space aliens with evil intent, bridge collapses, nuclear war; basically, things that resulted in oblivion. But the idea of quicksand terrified me the most. Imagine your end in sight on a kind of installment plan and not mercifully over in an instant.

deepening gloom
a flash of lightning
splits the difference

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About the Author

Tom Painting was born April 1, 1951, in Rochester, New York, and currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where he teaches junior high humanities at the Paideia School. In addition to bird watching and making slow but steady progress on the acoustic guitar, he hopes to reach the highest elevation points in each of the lower 48 states.