January 15, 2016:  I am 68 years old.  I have tens of thousands of words saved on my computer and on printed pages.  I started writing seriously for myself when I retired from teaching over ten years ago.  Some of my first pages included an iWeb blog and personal pieces like “Houses I Have Lived In.”

I have written something about every book I have read and every movie that I have viewed since I retired.  I have put up hundreds of slide shows on dmforrest.smugmug.com.

On October 21, 2016, my high school friend Nathan Powell died.  I helped carry his body to grave.  At his funeral I saw a slide show that took a stab a summing up his life and listened to three ministers speak about who Nath was.

What will people remember about me when I die?  How could they look into who I was?  If I died tonight, they could visit dmforrest.smugmug.com to see photos that I have taken.  That would a person a notion of who I was or help remind someone who was curious about me as a person.  The thousands of letters and compositions that I have written would be a problem for anyone who did not have access to my personal documents or my computer.  This site would be a way to look into me as a person.

I do not plan to have formal funeral.  My thought is that this blog would survive for a while so that an interested person could look into my head a bit.  My father Harold Buster Forrest died at 39 and  remains a stranger to me.  I do not have his writing.  The same is true for my mother Leona Pearl Irvin Forrest Barnes.  Leona did leave an extensive collection of photo albums and pottery, two traditions that Nita has continued.  I may be wrong but I think one day my family and friends may be curious enough to want to see who I was through what I leave behind.

Whoever I am is more embodied in writing than any other form.  For this reason and because I need to express to who I am in words, I plan to put some compositions on this blog.  I come closest to being the person I am through words and when I am outside in nature.

My physical self is fading.  Who am I?  I want to establish a record.

1. What I Plan to Do with danielforrest.org (January 15, 2016)

2. Why I Do Not Like Christmas (2015)

3. Christmas 2016: 25 People (December 25, 2016)

4. The Election of Donald Trump (December 26, 2016)

5. Offices I Have Know (January 7, 2017)

6. Pit Bull Encounter (January 7, 2017)

7. My New Solid Rubber Ball (January 9, 2017)

8. My Guilt (January 14, 2017) 

9. Tent Camping in 47 States (January 19, 2017)

10. What Happens When a Person Can Think Reflectively (February 11, 2017)

11. The Seesaw (April 5, 2017)

12. The Unexpected Eagle (April 23, 2017)

13. Unsolicited Advice for My Grandchildren (April 25, 2017)

14. Fiftieth High School Reunion: Memories Touching Memories and the Haphazard Recreation of My Youth (June 21, 2017)

15. Three Heroes (August 6, 2017)

16. Why I Love The New York Times (August 8, 2017)

17. News, Community, Peggy Fern’s Funeral and Poldark (November 12, 2017)

18. Two Wishes (December 10, 2017)

19. President Trump and the Resurrection of Racial Division (January 19, 2018)

20 Trump’s New American (February 7, 2018)

21. Face of the Dam (February 10, 2018)

22. Yards of My Youth (January 5, 2019)

23. Advance Obituary (February 17, 2019)

24. Seeing Myself Via Timestamp (February 23, 2019)

25. The Octopus and the Tent (December 2, 2019)

26. Distillation (December 6, 2019

27. The Death Today of One of My Heroes (January 24, 2020)

28. My Shaken Faith in America (January 25, 2020)

29. My Childhood: Photo to Photo (January 26, 2020)

30. COVID-19 and the National Mood (March 11, 2020)

31. Helping My Neighbor (May 19, 2020)

32. Jimmy and Donna and the Importance of Living in Someone’s Mind (September 7, 2020)

33. Large Talk (December 31, 2020)

34. The Continuation of the Civil War: President Trump’s Final Days (January 10, 2021)

35. Stories on the Edge of Memory (January 11, 2021)

36. President Biden: A Step Toward Civility (February 24, 2021)

37. Inside My Head at 73 (January 22, 2022)

38. The Hottest and Coldest (Nights February 24, 2022)

39. War in Ukraine (February 26, 2022)

40. Butt Patrol (June 5, 2022)

41. A Small Town Boy’s Weekday Night Out (January 19, 2023)

42. The Red and White (January 23, 2023)