Comments on: Robert Haydon Jones and Matthew Levine

By: paul zalon

paul zalon — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 15:48:14 +0000

Very very poignant story; our past lives (no matter how happy they may or may not have been) are so difficult to allow oneself to look at, ponder, remember. Life sometimes feels like it is all about loss and learning how to process it without regret. RHJ captures all the sadness, yearning and confusion of looking back.
The ending brings us back to that part of ourselves that still choses denial and anger over love.
Wonderfully written.

By: Jack Orth

Jack Orth — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:22:00 +0000

Robert Haydon Jones always has a message for me! No matter what piece I read of his I relate to it so many ways. “A Scrapbook Of Loving Kindness” hit me like a ton of bricks. For a few minutes I was Jimmy O’Hara! Then I quickly reverted back to myself–a guy who tried Facebook for three awful days. Then I went back to my old ways of being a low tech guy–I have my own built in Facebook tucked away in my brain, and can draw from it whenever I wish. Thanks Robert, for being such a great writer. You have a wonderful talent!

By: Souren

Souren — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:15:26 +0000

A moving story on the universal theme of a person looking back at his life with an approach that is unique and original. There’s a subtle hint of a parallel between the narrator’s scrapping of Molly’s scrapbook and his coming to terms with the sadness and yearning that characterized his own past.

By: Mark Liberman

Mark Liberman — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 00:10:46 +0000

I just love your prose. You bring me right there with you. Made me sense the way I feel when I try to connect on “Facebook”, and then I drift away to what it was I’m trying to do.

By: lawyerdan

lawyerdan — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:22:02 +0000

A very thought-provoking piece, raising the questions of how our narcissistic digital world can contribute value, richness,and true connectedness, what type of sensibility and even courage is required to revisit the past, and what is to be derived from doing so.

By: Ed Lambertson

Ed Lambertson — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 16:05:09 +0000

.A beautiful portrait of a multi-generation reminiscence.
Our aging brings a poignancy and even a degree of sadness to our reminiscing that can only be experienced as we march into the twilight. Your story “nails it”

By: malachy

malachy — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 01:36:16 +0000

Well done .This story maKES US ALL NOSTAGIC for for what never was and hoped would come to pass. How time sweeps us from the stage of life and people say oh yeah I remember him /her and forget again swiftly. Good stuff

By: John H. Tucker

John H. Tucker — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 19:36:17 +0000

My heart sunk along with the scrapbook and coffin. But sometimes it takes a sinking heart to remind you it exists.

A picture might be worth a thousand words. But well-chosen words about pictures are priceless.

An excellent read.

By: Ed Lambertson

Ed Lambertson — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 16:43:45 +0000

A really interesting, disturbing and entertaining story………put me in touch with a couple of my own “dirty little secrets” that I have been carrying around way too long.

A haunting painting that I look forward to seeing “close up”

By: dave monroe

dave monroe — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 00:36:20 +0000

I like the tension the family pictures create — people looking happy, but the memories so dismal. But what could be more bleak than an old women with only a scrap book of fantasies about a family life that never was? That was haunting for me. Nice story, with an classical like Joycian epiphany. Nice work. Keep working. It’s good for us all.