Dr. Tim Dosemagen
After completing his first novel, Prodigies – A Warring Species and the Human Heart, Dr. Tim Dosemagen decided to move toward the personal, producing in The Impossible a very eclectic and most unusual collection of delightful short stories and essays.
The Impossible combines humor with irony, weaving a lifetime of observations into an easy to read digest of very intimate observations, written in Dosemagen’s uniquely direct style, with a simplicity of description, an honesty of depiction, and a mastery of capturing the inequalities of life and unexplainable unfolding of the world’s events.
In reading these stories and essays, the reader will be alternately surprised, uplifted, shocked, chagrined, amused, and educated. One is left with a lingering appreciation at these brief portraits into so many hidden aspects of our a life, and the desire to re-read these stories and essays is happily quenched.
In The Impossible, Dosemagen casts a warm spotlight on the unlikeliest events of our lives, the roles each of us play in creating our futures, and the wonderful transformations yielded by the passage of time.
Ride the waves, enjoy the good yarns, take pleasure in the sarcasm of the screeds, the wisdom of the observations, and celebrate Dosemagen’s continuation of Mark Twain’s ‘A Pen Warmed Up In Hell’ tradition.
DR. TIMOTHY B. DOSEMAGEN
Born and reared in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Dr. Tim Dosemagen resides in southern California with his wife Cheryl, and children Jeremy and Mellissa.
Dr. Dosemagen served in the United States Air Force for 7 years during the Carter and Reagan Administrations as a Cryptologic Analyst, studying various military and in- dustrial entities of the Peoples Republic of China while reporting to the National Security Agency. During his 3 years of gathering intelligence in the Republic of Korea, China launched its first submarine launched ballistic missile, while suffering several significant pilot and aircraft defections. An East Asian language and culture undergraduate degree accompanied significant travel to Japan, the Republic of China, Hong Kong, Okinawa, Hawaii and Alaska. Dosemagen was decorated with the Air Force Achievement Medal, the Joint Service Achievement Medal, and the Air Force Commendation Medal.
After completing full-time government service in 1987, Dosemagen briefly instructed Chinese Mandarin in the Kenosha Unified School District, before joining the professional service of the Boy Scouts of America where he worked for 11 years, finishing as Director of Field Service with the Northeast Illinois Council, based in Highland Park.
He served briefly as La Leche League International’s Director of Operations. He then directed the marketing and funding of the IEF International Education Foundation, a California based organization dedicated to bridging the gap between U.S. educational opportunities and students from China, Taiwan and Korea. He then served as Executive Director of ABC Child Development, Inc., guiding 22 preschools in the eastern Los Angeles County Area. He now serves on the faculty of the University of Phoenix, teaching management and leadership in southern California.
In addition to his B.A. in Asian Studies from the University of Maryland, Dosemagen holds a Masters in Human Services from Murray State University, and received his Doctorate in Education from Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
He now serves as Executive Director of ABC Child Development, Inc., an El Monte, California based youth-serving human service agency.
A Paul Harris Fellow and long time Rotarian, Dosemagen is also a Vigil Honor Member of the Order of the Arrow, an American Legionnaire, was recently the recipient of the 2000 Distinguished Service Award from the American Inn of Court of Northern Illinois, and serves on the Executive Board of the Ontario, California Boy Scouts of America.
In the spring of 2002, Dosemagen lectured to Chinese educational community consumers in Shanghai and Nanjing, on recent policy changes in United States immigration procedures and post secondary educational administration, as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. He enjoys writing, translating, traveling, and the great outdoors. ‘Prodigies’, published in the summer of 2003, was Dr. Dosemagen’s first novel. ‘The Impossible’ is Dr. Dosemagen’s first published collection of short stories and essays. His next work will be an account of the lives and times of his parents.
The True Accounts Of Two People Who Died - And Came Back
Both of these accounts come from men I used to work with, and are accurate versions of what they said happened when they died, and came back.
Dan was a boy of just seven when he was playing with colored chalk, drawing on the asphalt in front of the wheel of a parked car. Dan doesn’t remember hearing any passengers in the car, nor does he remember why the car started moving forward, but it did, and he suddenly became trapped under the wheel.
“I couldn’t breathe, my chest was pinned, and the driver wasn’t moving. I lost consciousness due to suffocation.”
Then it happened.
“I remember leaving my body. I looked back down on myself, and I remember thinking about trying to un-jam my own body from under the wheel of the car. The driver didn’t seem to realize I was there, and I wanted to tell her, but I began rising into the air, farther and farther away from the scene. I saw my neighbors come outside, running over to the accident scene. Some of them tried to help. I could hear them talking, and I could see them gesturing. I was floating higher and higher.”
“Soon, I was shooting up this tunnel, rising rapidly, and all I can remember was seeing lots of friendly, somewhat familiar people who were smiling, holding out their arms, as if I was coming home, and they were welcoming me back from a journey. One of the people I distinctly remember seeing in the tunnel was my grandfather. He had died when I was five, and I really liked him.”
“It’s the whole feeling of the situation that I remember most. The warmth of the surroundings, the bright comfort of the light in the tunnel, and waiting at the end of the tunnel, I just had this overwhelming feeling that I was going to be seeing something or someone very special. I was looking forward to getting up to the top, and felt like I was getting very close.”
“The very next thing I can recall, I was looking into my mother’s eyes, and she was crying, holding my hand, telling me how glad she was to have me back OK, and that I would be alright after all. I told her exactly what happened, and she was amazed that I knew so many of the details of the accident. She was even more astonished at the rest of my story, but has come to accept it now. She probably knows it better than I do by now.”
Did going through so strange an experience change Dan? Absolutely, he acknowledges.
“From that day on, I have never feared death. I have always known that God is good, and that there are good people waiting for us on another level beyond life. And, I have learned to count very few things as the impossible. The truths in our lives are often much harder to believe and to comprehend than are the constructions we create to support our assumptions. I’m not afraid to die, and never have been.”
* * *
Bill was a successful executive, a father of two, and a hard charging “Type-A” personality. All his life he had battled with his weight, he overindulged in alcohol now and again, especially with his office mates after working long days, he smoked, and he admitted having worked for a very difficult boss for 8 long years. He was 49 years old when he had his third major heart attack.
“I was Code Blue (no heart beat) two times, once in the rescue squad being taken to the ER from my home, and the other time was on the operating table during my emergency coronary bypass surgery.”
After the third heart attack, Bill’s doctors gave him four bypasses in an attempt to bring back adequate blood flow to his severely damaged heart. He was on his back and temporarily out of work for three agonizing months.
“I was mad as hell at my body for letting me down. I missed being in the action. The doctors told me I had to change, to stop sweating all the small stuff. They also told me that if I had another attack, no more bypasses, I’d have to look for a heart transplant.”
“All I remember from the time when they tell me I was Code Blue was watching them work on me. I can remember everything they said, and I was watching this whole show from somewhere above the level of the table. Then I started sinking down this hole. It was cold, I felt alone, and I didn’t like the feeling at all. I just wanted to get back out, to see something, anything. Thank God they resuscitated me.”
The road to recovery wasn’t easy for Bill. Exercise helped, but he was still dogged with constantly taking medications for lingering surgery pain, high blood pressure, diabetes, angina, diuretics, and anti-depressants. But he was getting better, and after surviving three heart attacks, every day was a good one.
Bill enjoyed golf, and I will never forget joining him for one of his first rounds after surgery, at the beginning of his recovery process. The stitches in his chest must have still been healing, and I know Bill was experiencing pain swinging the club. I was smoking at the time, and on the second hole I remember Bill asking me for a cigarette, admonishing me not to tell his wife, or he’d fire me. It was a funny situation and I took his joke well, but the irony of it all stays with me to this day.
Bill’s outlook on life was completely changed by the third attack. He began to smell the roses. He lost most of his anger, taking time to enjoy life, and to enjoy laughter more. He had a couple of great grandkids that kept him busy, and he continued to accomplish great things at work. He was easier for me to understand, and a great deal more fun to work with.
Bill later retired and moved to the Sun Belt. I kept in contact with him each Holiday Season, and retirement was treating him pretty good. Four years after retiring, Bill died peacefully, in his sleep.
