* * I'm back!

For several years ending early this year, I was a regular contributor to the New River Current edition of the Roanoke Times. Contributions from four writers were discontinued, leaving me no local public voice. That changed recently when I agreed to provide similar material to the competitive newspaper, the News Messenger. This is my first submission for them, cross-posted with permission from the publisher.

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Hi! I’m back. I’ve missed you! Actually, I never left. Let me explain.

My name is Michael Abraham. I wrote regular columns for the “Other guys” for over four years until they discontinued the column. The new publisher of the News Messenger, Connie Brockenborough, has invited me to write here instead, an opportunity I’m glad to have.

All my writing is motivated by something someone once said to me about us locals. “We think culture is something somebody else has.” In my definition, culture is two things. First, it is the best a society can give us: the best food, music, art, and dance. Second, it is everything about how we live our lives: how we brush our teeth, how we use our dining utensils, how we court and make romance. We become so immersed in our own culture that we become like fish trying to “see” water. I am motivated to explore how individualistic cultures, including our own, can be.

In each column, I’ll reveal more about myself and my relationship to the landscape, people, and the culture. But I’ll bring profiles of and views from others as well. I’ll try to keep it interesting and informative. I’ll do that by seeing things as a newcomer, through eyes as fresh as I can manage.

I am a Christiansburg native, a graduate of Christiansburg High School and Virginia Tech, where I earned a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, which, incidentally, was the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. I left the area for 15 years, spending five in Lynchburg, and 10 in Seattle, Washington. I’ve been back in the area for 20 years now, and I will be the first to admit that I have a much greater appreciation for what we have here than when I left.

My wife has a PhD in Psychology. She does consulting work and runs Pocahontas Press, a tiny company publishing local works of non-fiction and fiction.

We have one daughter who is a junior at Virginia Tech.

Even though I’m now in the bi-focal set, I still take my play quite seriously. My greatest passions are on two wheels: motorcycling and bicycling. I also love to hike, backpack, and travel.

I have two jobs; one makes money but doesn’t take much time and the other that takes lots of time but doesn’t make much money. In the former, I manage an industrial “shell” building in Christiansburg. In the latter, I write.  I’ve been writing commentaries and essays for years, but only for the last three years have I been writing seriously. In that time, I’ve written three books:

The Spine of the Virginias is a non-fiction exploration of the history, people, culture, and places along the border between Virginia and West Virginia.

Union, WV is an “R” rated novel of loss, healing, and redemption set in a tiny West Virginia town.

Harmonic Highways is a non-fiction look at Virginia’s Crooked Road, the Heritage Music Trail.

I’m at work on my fourth book, a novel set in Southwest Virginia in the midst of a national calamity. Research for that novel has put me in touch with preachers, historians, musicians, survivalists, and midwives.

As I am doing this research, I will share some of the experiences of these people and others I encounter here in the New River Valley. I will try to share with you my appreciation of the culture we have here.

Thanks for joining me. We’ll talk again soon.