2026.08.DisappearingMoment: Unmedicated, Epigenetic Prepubescent

My 8th grade history teacher, Mr. Vernon, addressed us as “miscreants”. As in, “Good morning, Miscreants. Today we’re going to talk about Pearl Harbor.” His stories described a series of tenuous, interdependent constructions. Think dominoes, nesting dolls, syllogisms, trolley problems, standoffs, polycules. This was less pedagogical style and more verbal affliction, reinforced by decades of unmedicated thirteen-year-old regiments storming into and out of his classroom. Miscreant regiment, bell, miscreant regiment, bell, Summer. Regiment, bell, regiment, bell, Summer. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Each time he told them, Mr. Vernon’s stories grew more tenuous, constructed, afflicted. Part of my worldview developed in Mr. Vernon’s class. Neither societal nor personal history is about collecting facts or divining truth. You and I will believe whatever suits us, even of it doesn’t benefit us. History defines our credulity, ambitions, and anxieties: what was, is, and should never be. Mr. Vernon…