Our

Story

by

Lawrence Abby Gauthier

ace reporter

The Westphalia Periodic News

In addition to being an ace reporter with a weekly column, I also spend lots of time editing the work of other writers prior to publishing their books.

Lately, I’ve mostly been working on two book projects, one about economics by a Colorado entrepreneur who lost it all in 2008 and decided to find out why; and the other by a Detroit guy I knew in college who went into advertising and real estate and is now retired and writing a who-done-it with metaphysics and gay sex.

Last week Culley Jane finished the first draft of her latest novel, her fifth since the beginning of the Covid lockdown, and now that’s on my plate too.

I can’t edit and publish every book that comes my way.

I have to choose.

When deciding what projects to pursue, the first thing I always consider is this: Is the book Negentropic? If not, I tell the writer to look for a New York publisher.

The word, “Negentropic,” is not a word commonly used in the vernacular. But it’s a real word. It defines a way of thinking about the universe. And if it’s true, as we were taught in the second grade at St. Mary and St. Joseph school, that we are created in the Image and Likeness, then it’s also a way of thinking about ourselves, our biological species, our humanness. In what ways am I like the little boy or girl growing up today in a palace or in a slum on the other side of the world?

Negentropy is actually an uncomplicated word. It means, simply, “not Entropy.”

Lots of people have heard of that word — Entropy. In 1980, Jeremy Rifkin wrote a book called “ENTROPY: A New World View.” A best seller. It was like a Bible in the burgeoning environmentalist movement at the time. In 1999, the movie Entropy came out, featuring the Irish rockers U2.

Even before people started hearing the word, the idea behind it had become widespread in the culture. In history classes, the idea was presented as the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire and then all the others and then the rise and fall of European Empires and now what, the American Empire?

In science classes, the idea was presented as mainstream, entering the vernacular as “The Big Bang Theory.” There’s even a movie by that name too.

The theory is that the universe starts with a Big Bang, when everything goes flying off into empty space as energetic particles full of youth and zip like they’re kids again on the Little League field, red-haired Mary Anne cheering from the stands.

But over time, the particles gradually slow down until there’s no energy of motion left, when everything comes to a standstill in perfect balance in nature’s perfect imitation of death.

That’s entropy.

But it’s only a pause… because then there’s gravity and all the individual particles start to congregate like Lutheran church ladies at a Sunday pot luck until they’re all packed together again at an infinitesimally small point that explodes in a Big Bang and we do it all over again, and again, and again in the image and likeness of the mathematician’s Bell Curve.

Maybe we’re on the curve’s ascending slope, going places where nobody’s ever been before, but for sure one day we’ll be going down the other side. That’s the only thing we can know for certain, like the sun coming up and going down. It’s the Word of the Universe, Mother Nature, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Maybe do with less to buy a little more time, but that’s about it. Maybe just sit in a chair, watching, waiting for the inevitable. Helpless… to act… to move.

That’s why!

That’s why I’m a negentropist! And why I’ll only spend time on negentropic books. Had I been asked to edit and publish Rifkin’s book, or produce the movie Entropy, where I’d get to party in Santa Monica with famous international rock stars, I’d’ve turned the deal down flat. I’m a negentropist!

How I got to be this way is a long story for another day. I just know, using nothing more than my universally human ability to reason, that there’s all kinds of things we could be doing, not just to postpone the inevitable, but to keep us on the Bell Curve’s good side, maybe forever. We’re not helpless. Maybe the Big Bang never happened. Maybe there's nothing to go back to.

And I don’t think I’m alone. Tens of millions of people across the globe are marching in the streets today — No Kings… I agree. Been there, done that. Kingdoms always collapse, taking the people down with them. But there’s a better way. That was the message of the 1648 Peace of Westphalia; that there’s a higher authority than kings, secular or religious; and that it’s based on the idea of sovereignty, personal and collective.

Culley Jane comes down to my office to ask me if I want to go to one of the No Kings demonstrations in Denver today, even if only to get some interviews for Thursday’s Columns.

It’s a brisk Autumn day. I’ve got a fire going in the fireplace. I tell her, “Nah. I think I’ll work from home today.”

--30--

The Miscegenation of Cutlery

  by

  Mark Lehnertz

  Denver Confluence Writers

The dishwasher basket still warm from the run
  an open drawer part full of emptiness
Knife slot… fork space… spoon place...

soupspoons bric-a-brac of usefuls

Accidental memories of forgetfulness
  the hurried rush of left behinds
Fork sent home with a piece of cake
Spoon from a party left in a bowl
 
Holiday pie server, swept aside in cleanup.
Sent back or left behind, who knows?
Mismatched lacquer chopsticks
Two baby spoons still in the drawer.
 
French filigree pressed heavy stainless
  -or- Mod-stamped in too light a gauge
Rarely seen runt of a spoon slips sideways
only seen when all others are in use
 
Embossed handle on a thin metal fork
Stamped handle spoon bought-on-the-way
  to some long forgotten pot-luck
Puritan plain fork, too-long tines—lips stabbers
 
Short spoon meant to go back

  with the blonde girl.
Gone where… unknown. 

Frayed bonds time-lost.
The Silver-plate runcible spoon,

  a friend’s notion
A smile.

Statements all of time… passed.
 
Mark Lehnertz 10-18-2025