Seattle, WAJuly 21, 2018 It has been said that if a cow lies down somewhere in California, a seismologist will know it. Such is the density and sensitivity of the more than 700 seismographs scattered across that quivering state. At 5:13a on April 18, 1906, the cows did not so much lie down as fall […]
San Francisco, CA July 20, 2018 Who am I? Why am I here? – Admiral James Stockdale, 1992 Vice Presidential Debate The ship left New York Harbor in January 1846, rounded the Horn, paused at the Sandwich Islands to arm it’s cargo of Latter Day Saints, and set off to conquer the Mexican pueblo of […]
San Francisco, CA July 17, 2018 Yesterday we started ab ovo, remembering that San Francisco emerged from the earth…and from the Pacific floor. Today, we recall that it also came from the Sierra mines…and that it clings by the grace of God to its precarious perch on the edge of the world, hoping not to slide […]
Dahlonega, GAJuly 6, 2018 We are at Cavender Creek Winery celebrating the beautiful, intimate vineyard wedding of a couple close friends. A series of storms threatened, but did not disrupt, the outdoor ceremony…leaving only a cool breeze and chirping birds to accompany the strains of vows and veils surrounding and adorning the protagonists and their […]
Atlanta, GA May 13, 2018 “Oh no! You don’t like him either!”– My mother, to my father, on seeing his initial reaction to the birth of his first son OK…perhaps mushy sentimentality is not my mother’s thing. Then again, that my first impression evoked a 10 lb rhino, with a head the size of Wyoming […]
Atlanta, GAMay 5, 2018 My resistance to unexpected turn-of-events often resembles a newly paved road: initially firm and unyielding but, under exposure and pressure, soon starts to crack…and ultimately caves like limestone in Lakeland. This morning’s plea caught me completely off-guard, as if I had come across an open bar in a Mecca mosque. Today […]
Ginnie Springs, FL February 18, 2018 I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. – Henry David […]
Atlanta, GAFebruary 2, 2018 “A beautiful light is going out in the world.” So ended today’s email from my mother to Brett and me informing that an ostensibly dormant cancer had returned and will allot only a “few more weeks” to one of the best friends she and our family could ever hope to […]
m/s Amsterdam, off Oaxaca, Mexico December 25, 2017 Our string of consecutive years spending Christmas in Tampa was dead. Dead as a doornail. Of that there was no doubt. We must instead carry the chains of shore excursions, happy hours, and dessert buffets we have recently forged in life. This year, with some initial reluctance, […]