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Popular: Books, Stories, Articles, Poetry      Authors: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z     

Patricia Hilliard

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Books
· Mystery of Quercus Gardens

· One Pledge Unspoken

· Making Changes

· Go To Liberty


Short Stories
· The Gun

· War Toy Boy

· The Voice of Want

· Salad Dressing

· Making America Great Somehow.

· What Words Mean to Young People

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· Verbatim

· That's Enough!


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· War and the Earth we need to live on.

· Cures not Wars

· Are You Writing for Me?

· The Death of a Website, an author's lament.

· Book Review: Pearl S. Buck: Pavilion of Women

· Taxes, taxes, taxes!

· Anti-war Protests Again: problem of war not solved.

· Plagiarism: What is it really?

· DEMOCRACY? WHAT IS IT?


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Verifying Ones Self
by Patricia Hilliard
Last edited: Saturday, January 17, 2026
Posted: Friday, October 17, 2025



     
Living in modern times has its own special challenges.

I hold the device in my hands, but it holds me so much more. It holds everything I am. My photos of family and friends, my favorite books and music. It holds my credit accounts and my debit accounts. I cannot wash my clothes nor find my way around town without my device. Truly, without my device, I cannot even order myself a sandwich.

Then came the day: I watched my device slip from my hands, to drop through the air, tumbling downward, through a grate in the street. Into a sewer. My life in a sewer.  A life unable to be verified. Am I human? Who would know me? How can I prove myself to the world? I once feared death because I feared being alone. Now I fear being alive without my device. Is the sense of self an illusion?

 

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Reviewed by Robert Drews
Reviewed on October 18, 2025
We are at the mercy of our devices for better or worse. Best to keep our feet on the ground and hope (and try) for the best.

Nice writing Patricia. Be well and God bless.

Bob Drews

Reviewed by Ronald Hull
Reviewed on October 17, 2025
You are right, everyone these days has their whole life on their device. It starts for convenience, but soon becomes a necessity. I keep mine on a computer backed up on another computer and both of the computers backed up with extra drives.

But that isn’t really important in the scheme of things. We can get all of those things back even though it may be an onerous process if we drop our legacy down a grate of no retrieval. What’s important, especially as authors, is whether we will be remembered as time marches on.

While I have found that you can search and find serial killers and almost any kind of miscreant, there is an absence of the great mentors and authors of textbooks, leaders of organizations that I knew that have no Internet footprint, whatsoever. Goodness will not give you a legacy unless you are a martyr. Most people just think their legacy is their children who are always so smart and resourceful that they will be the ones famous in the family.

I encourage every author here to search just for their name. And see what comes up by the power of AI, Google or Bing. If you have a name the same as many other people, make sure you include your middle name or something that distinguishes you from others like the word, author or poet.

If nothing comes up in the first two pages with your name on it or your nom de plume, you are basically invisible and your legacy will not go anywhere except through your children.

Thanks to belonging to AD for so long, my legacy is alive and well on the wild, wild net.

Ron


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