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...
Agua Escondida
From San Lucas Toliman we went up the mountain another 800 feet or so in an old school bus over bad road to Agua Escondida where the clinic was set up in an old hall next to a church. It was a steep climb. There weren’t enough seats so some of us stood. Each morning the bus was filled with conversation and laughter. As we gringos crowded into the bus and...
Going to Guatemala
I’m going to Guatemala, the Lake Atitlan area, on an eye care missions with optometrists, thousands of pairs of used glasses, a bunch of modern equipment, and a lot of good people, all of us volunteers, all of us committed to helping people who cannot afford eye care improve their vision. We’ll operate a four-day clinic in a small town under volcanic peaks inhabited primarily by Mayan Indians, some of...
The Future of Drones
Usually when I write on a topic too long readership falls off, with the notable exception of “The Hot Dog Blog” which I ended only because I was tired of writing about wieners, while genuinely amazed at the widespread and growing interest in the variety of ways they are cooked and served. Usually though I find hits to the blog page decrease the longer I write about the same thing. ...
They kill us. We kill them.
There is so much political news. We’re drowning in it. If I’m not careful I am grabbed by news stories out of Washington first thing in the morning and they stay with me all day. My thoughts are taken up by what I read on illuminated screens rather than what I see in the real world around me. I’m trying to find a balance, to inject humor, to turn my...
A Visit from Basil Hayden on Groundhog's Day
My friend Basil Hayden unexpectedly showed up at my door on Groundhog’s Day. He’s looking good. Prosperous. I haven’t seen him since college. He comes from Kentucky, was in Chicago on business, and stopped by to pay me a visit on his way home. Basil has quite a history. In college we knew him as Evan Williams. He’s all different from those days. Dropped out for years, emerged with a...
Glue
There are people among us that stand out. Others gravitate to them, value their friendship, and celebrate who they are. We feel we know these people like no other, and when in the company of others that also know them our common familiarity is like a meal shared among friends. We count on them and they don’t let us down. They openly and loudly stand for things we quietly believe in. ...
Dago red
My Dad talked so seldom about his past that when I found him in a mood to revisit his younger days I slipped in saved up questions. Once in the winter, before I could drive, we were finishing up the chores. All we had to do was bed down the cows, shake straw under them in their stanchions to give them a nice dry bed for the night. We each...
Beyond Words
Whenever we, I refer to the big we, human beings on the planet graced with language and the means to communicate now so easily with one another, find ourselves in or even close to a moment so beautiful, so striking, which so captures our attention and fills our senses that the phrase “beautiful beyond words” springs to mind; we should take notes. We have to first find, then share those...
Burning in the New Year
I started out the 2017 shack year by burning the chair above, seen there in summer. I’d considering burning it for some time. I have not read, but heard many people talk about, a Japanese woman’s book about decluttering your life. Her system involves, from what I hear, focusing on a single object, looking at it, holding it in your hand, and carefully considering if it brings joy and utility...
Answer Your Phone
Bad things happen in our own lives and the lives of those around us. If we can, we protect ourselves by turning away. We shield ourselves, if possible, from trauma, from ugliness, from imagined scenes we fear will turn to fact and haunt us. I received a phone call from a friend now living out of town who was worried about another mutual friend. In response I said “Sure, I’ll...