Through the Gateway

Through the Gateway

Home
Archive
About

June 2025

The Maple Street Book Shop is gone, but treasured memories remain of a Golden Age in my early life
I’ve really been missing New Orleans lately.
 • 
John Van Dalen
My philosophy of photography based on a lifetime of taking pictures
The question is not what you look at, but what you see.
 • 
John Van Dalen
2
Loneliness and aging
At the innermost core of all loneliness is a deep and powerful yearning for union with one’s lost self.”
 • 
John Van Dalen
2

May 2025

Watching home movies from the 1950s and 60s has provided a Time Machine experience back to the more innocent era of my early youth
I often write about the past because all my past experiences have resulted in the man I am today, considerably wiser than when I was young because of…
 • 
John Van Dalen
To be young again, or not to be, that is the question
People often say there’s no way they’d want to be 25, or 30 or 35.
 • 
John Van Dalen
A grandmother in a nursing home has a devoted grandson; I tried my best to be a devoted son taking care of my mother in her home
A grandson is someone I will never know, in this life anyway.
 • 
John Van Dalen
From The Memory Vault: A shining college town on a hill
My Mayberry existence once upon a time
 • 
John Van Dalen

April 2025

Life before the World Wide Web versus today’s internet and technological advances with AI: two alien worlds collide
I often think about how technology has affected my life in the past three decades since I first went online with the World Wide Web at the library on a…
 • 
John Van Dalen
6
What is “retirement?” Part 2
Part 1 is here: https://www.prosebox.net/entry/2196351
 • 
John Van Dalen
2
What is “retirement”? Part 1 of 2
Endings and beginnings mark this final stage of life
 • 
John Van Dalen
From the Memory Vault: A new start in life began with travels around the country
The year 1984 was another of those pivotal years in my younger life when I was trying to come to grips with the end of one career and way of life, and…
 • 
John Van Dalen
© 2025 John Van Dalen
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture