Dinner in the Field and other stories
I find you can discover your strengths at any age. For example, I find I’m a better writer than I am an editor. I have a full-length draft of a memoir that I’ve devoted countless hours to, and it’s finally finished. I’m anxious to move on to new material. But finishing the book is not the same as completing the project. Doing it right, I’m told, entails a less than...
Learning from Mistakes
After being in Chicago for three days over Thanksgiving, and lazing around in the house for two more, I returned to the shack Monday morning and built a fire in the stove. I do that nearly every winter morning when I’m home and in my routine. It’s a tiny stove, made in the San Juan Islands at a place called Navigator Stove Works. I bought their “Sardine” model, smallest in...
The Road to Belfast
Tooling around Ireland is not like traveling in the States. Distance is abbreviated. You can drive from coast to coast, from way south Cork to way north Ballycastle, in 5 hours and 10 minutes. We could have driven straight east from Donegal to Belfast, west coast to east, in just over two hours. Instead, we looped up north. We found we had plenty of time. Besides, we had places to...
Tales from Donegal
I was told a powerful family story from the past by a man living in Ireland. It helped me understand the Ireland of my ancestors, and how that past shaped the character of Irish people in both Ireland and those places to which they immigrated. In 1902 in a small town in County Donegal on the western coast of Ulster, now part of the Republic of Ireland and the European...
Who are You Going to Shoot?
Forgive me for breaking up my stories from Ireland but I’m back home now taking a fresh look at the country I live in and its politics. I’ll send you ‘Tales from Donegal’ very soon. It is half-written. This one is done. * I have quite a few FaceBook friends and have gained more over the years by slowly finding people from my past. One group is people from the...
Chasing Ghosts and Irish Pubs
I went to Ireland on the trail of two men, William James McClure, (1815-1895) who was born, lived, and died in Antrim County, Ireland and his son Robert Montgomery McClure, who came to America from there at age 18. I just learned William’s name, and that of his wife Sarah (1815-1914), about a month ago. His name and his dates of birth and death are absolutely all I know about...
Animal Stories
When friends visit the shack they sit on the futon looking east through the glass patio doors at the ravine and me, while I sit in my chair looking west at a more solid shack wall and them. My friend Lonny visited the shack and while talking looked past me. His face changed, eyes got wider, mouth formed an O. I knew he’d seen something. “Look behind you.” I turned....
North of the Border
My day to day life is soft. You can see it in my hands. And when life gets hard, soft hands take a beating. Of course, age changes our hands too. These sixty-eight year old hands of mine have blotches and liver spots. Veins pop out and they bruise easily. I don’t know what that’s about. Thin skinned I guess, although I’m rarely bothered by criticism anymore, if ever. I’m...
Vegetable Bingo
My wife and I celebrated our anniversary, and my birthday, by going to Chicago for three nights. My wife plans these trips and occasionally consults with me. We were packing a lot in. ü Nice downtown hotel booked cheaply on an internet travel site. ü Dinner at a PiIsen steakhouse restaurant with the kids. ü Chilling at a lakeside beach ü Dinner at a hip new place complete with street...
Understanding Horror
I read the essay written by the El Paso shooter. Just reading his words is controversial. There’s a belief we should not give those words credence, not help their author achieve fame, and not repeat them. But in college I had a wise English professor who believed this; It is always better to know than not to know. I’ve stuck with that idea ever since. How can we recognize terrorism,...
The Feel of a Good Book
Besides the obvious there is a difference between traveling and staying home. When you travel you seek out the new: foods, people, places, experiences, conversations. When you stay home you bask in the familiar, and the new comes to you almost accidentally. But it’s possible, with age, to rediscover what was once new and enjoy it again no matter where you are. I was in Yellow Springs, Ohio on a...