Post 13/2021 Friday 26 March . . . A twinge of unease underlies my feelings of delight as I walk among the first signs of spring. It's a slight twinge, alongside my delight in bird song. First flowers. Buds. Balmy temperatures. The grand awakening of the out-of-doors. Freedom, again, to have company indoors. Friends Dean …
Beyond the bubble, connection and hallelujah!
Post 12/2021 Thursday 18 March . . . Carol Bly spoke her mind as a writer, teacher and ethicist. Her heartland was rural Minnesota, USA; her voice urgently timeless in promoting "national-scale virtues." In recent months I've finally read one of her books, Letters From the Country (Penguin Books, 1981). This collection, 31 essays published …
Continue reading Beyond the bubble, connection and hallelujah!
Cleaner water, thanks a million
Post 11/2021 Friday 12 March . . . I'm drawn to water. I've lived next to it. Vacationed near it. Gotten sick on board ship. Oh, the memory: In 1964, even on the calmest day crossing the Atlantic on the Castle Felice, I fed my breakfast to the fish. Returning home, after a volunteer year …
Buggies, horseless carriages, early motor cars
Post 10/2021 Saturday 6 March . . . A visit to LaGrange County, Indiana, brings one face-to-face with a way of life that took form ages ago. The Amish still get around by horse and buggy, bicycle, and on foot, though they also use public transportation or hire drivers with vans or cars. The Amish …
Continue reading Buggies, horseless carriages, early motor cars
Glad for winter, as for spring around the corner
Post 8/2021 Friday 26 February . . . From weeks of bitter cold we now latch onto signs of a soon-to-arrive spring. Only yesterday, it seems, we entered the daunting winter sojourn of February. Now, here we are, the shortest month about to end. I'm glad for the now; add a "s" and I'm still …
Continue reading Glad for winter, as for spring around the corner
Enough cold to go around
Shared Views #8/2020 Saturday 20 February . . . Even our car got into the cold weather act. By cold weather I'm referring to temperatures that hovered between plus and minus single and double digits (degrees Fahrenheit). When I tried to start our car, after not having driven it for almost a week, it didn't …
‘Till we meet again, Cornwall
Shared Views Post #7/2021 Friday 12 February . . . Last year we were on our way to Carbis Bay, Cornwall, UK. The Covid-19 pandemic meant we needed to return home earlier than planned, five weeks early. That's a story in the April 2020 archives. This year, we're missing our annual winter/spring sojourn there. It …
Shared Views #6 To transcend racism
Post 280 (since I started doing this blog) #6/2020 Saturday 6 February . . . A bit of digging into the history of slavery unearths a telling story. That story reveals the bad side of US history, including the story behind Blackface and its popularization in the character, Jim Crow. It's a story impossible to …
Shared Views #5
Post 5/2021 Friday 29 January . . . Mary Baechler, my late great-aunt, knitted a pair of mittens for me that I've just retrieved from a bottom dresser drawer. The mittens may be 50 years old. At one time I wore them all the time for walks in winter. They are so warm, so evocatively …
Shared Views #4
Post 4/2020 Saturday 23 January . . . We watched it. We listened to the speeches, music and commentary. In the afternoon, I even napped. It was a wonderful TV-side day. Last Wednesday, the peaceful transfer of executive power in the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris meant the country could …
It's About Now 