Welcome to the Center of the Universe...

A long time ago I read a story. It was by one of the great science fiction writers. I can't remember which one (they tell me this is going to get worse) but I remember the story well. Some guy goes back in time, steps on a butterfly and on returning to his own time finds everything has been changed by this seemingly minor. action. Now my wife tells me not to believe that I am the center of the universe and that the things I do are influencing events elsewhere. It's getting a bit harder for her to hold this story line down when folks stop her on the street and say "I loved what you did on the blog!" I can make my case with two stories that appeared in the last two issues of the magazine Texas Observer. 

The mission statement of the Texas Observer has a nice ring. They claim to "hew hard to the truth" and "...dedicated...to human values above all interest..." to never ..."serve the interest of the powerful..." and so on you get the idea. They are nice folks. The first story they ran that I was connected to was on the questions surrounding the death of Alfred Wright. Alfred was a young PTA in Jasper. He once worked for the same company as me. I met him and worked with him one time and we covered each other's patients a couple of other times. He was a nice guy and the FBI is now  looking into his death. The next month a story ran about a fellow holed up in the East Texas woods near Melrose with a bunch of guns hiding out from the local law. He was hiding on an old friend's land who noticed a suspicious trail and alerted the authorities. I won't name the friend since he was not named in the article. Let's say I hear it through the grapevine.  

So there you have it. Make up your own mind. I'll be going to bed soon but first I have the newest issue of the New Yorker to browse through.