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...
Two Lovely Ladies
The election is exactly a month away. I should be writing about the important political choices we will soon make which will decide America’s future. Instead I bring you a vivid account of two amazing females who have entered my life. Last Tuesday I was introduced to Guinevere and Lainey. I’d been hoping to meet them for a month and my anticipation had grown considerably. It was a special moment...
Change Can Be Infectious
September 21st marks the Autumnal Equinox. If you’re a nit picker, it officially happens at exactly 8:30 a.m. on the 22nd. At that precise moment length of day is the same everywhere on the planet from the poles to the equator. Summer ended quickly. I was picking peppers and tomatoes in shorts and a tee shirt in the garden on a hot Monday and by Friday a forecast of temperatures...
The Fate of the Buick
There is a fine line between a good old car and a beater. My 2006 Buick Lucerne is teetering somewhere on that line. It’s sad. Having given up so much in 2020 I hate like hell to give up my Buick. There are cosmetic issues, but they are not bad at all. One day while leaving my garden I jumped in the driver’s seat with something sharp in the back...
Dear Abby
I haven’t written a blog post for over a month. My last entry was a comparison of coronavirus deaths to those killed in Vietnam. It was written just after the number of Americans lost to the virus in six months were double those Americans killed during our country’s twenty-year armed conflict in Southeast Asia. And now America is racing to triple that war’s deaths. I expect that to occur sometime...
Captivated by Numbers
We are seeing a lot of graphs these days. Graphs portray numbers visually. They represent facts and suggest trends. With a graph you can see the measure of some slice of reality, what has happened and what is likely to happen next. Graphs have become part of our language and our thoughts. “Flattening the curve” means more today than it ever did. When you talk of deaths caused by Coronavirus,...
Keeping Vigil
I signed up online to take the 4:00-5:00 a.m. time slot at my church’s 24-hour vigil against racism because I’m up then anyway. I have this moveable hour or so when I wake up, for no particular reason, and think about all kinds of things. Sometimes it’s the worry hour, sometimes the planning hour. Whatever it is I rarely get out of bed. My goal is to get back to...
Digging Thistles
I was fortunate to be given space on an organic farm to plant a row of vegetables. The farm is six miles from my driveway. It has buffer zones separating it from the flat Illinois corn and bean ground around it. One of the big crops on the organic farm this year is sunflowers. That stand of flowers is going to be beautiful. The plot where my row is planted...
Knowing Jack
I got to know my wife’s Uncle when I was turning 49 and he was 87. One of my brothers in law, husband with skills and tools of another of Jack’s nieces, was trying to help him stay in his old farmhouse in Dimmick township. I became the gopher on the job. That house had significant problems, plumbing among others. It was Jack’s parents’ house. He had never married, was...
Classical Music and Corncobs
I intentionally skipped the news today. It was driving me crazy. Instead, bright and early in the shack, I poured a cup of espresso and put Beethoven in the CD changer. Ludwig von was born 250 years ago, and because of that the discount CD catalog I get featured his stuff. I bought a couple. I hadn’t gotten around to listening to them. Somehow, I decided today was the day. ...
A Report from the Shack
That is the view out the patio doors to the right of my writing desk. It is a small patch of woods that comprises most of my world view during these slow days. I feel fortunate to have it. More happens out there than you might think. I saw the fox last week. He was moving through the bottom of the ravine twenty feet below me. Even though I don’t...