LUMEN

Short stories by Kurt Mueller
Trade paperback: $15.00

D E S C R I P T I O N

Lumen is a collection of extra-ordinary and diverse tales that explore various ways in which the mysteries of life—big and small—are revealed to ordinary people. It also deals with the subjective nature of revelations that are open to sensory and spiritual interpretation, blurring the distinction between what is tangible and what is ephemeral. Though the settings and time periods may be exotic, a sense of familiarity infuses the stories as we are drawn into characters that could be any of us, because what happens within the human mind is universal—fantastic and real. Ultimately, nothing is ordinary or what it seems at first glance. The first step to connecting with the universe—or God or nature or each other—is an inward one. Within each of us there is something waiting to be revealed and it is rarely what we expect.

E X C E R P T

It was a beautiful evening, which was perfect because I had decided that it should be the last evening of my life. It was a good feeling to think I was done. I wonder if the good vibe had something to do with the fact that I had given up striving. Maybe for the first time in my life I was alive, without anxiety, without expectation, without responsibility.

Two days prior, I grabbed what little cash I had around the house, along with a tattered sleeping bag, and drove up to the North Shore of Lake Superior, where I intended to swim out into the oblivion of that beautiful chilly sea. I love it up there, though I miss the birch forests that are fast becoming a memory, dying off because beautiful things are never designed to last. It was only after I had actually stripped naked and waded into the black water at Cut Face Creek Wayside Park that I reconsidered hypothermia as a fitting end. I almost didn’t have a choice. Within a few minutes, I couldn’t feel my feet. I scampered painfully over the beach stones back to my car where I whimpered with the engine running until I was reasonably warm again. I used up enough gas saving my life that there was no way I’d make it back to the Twin Cities with the two dollars I had left.