What does one sheep, one coin, one son who is also a brother, have in common? Other than that each is singular, and the implication is that there are after all other sheep, and more coins, and another son, what perhaps is unfamiliar to some readers but also known to many, is that in each […]
Letter: Final Ascent
Pictured is the final ascent of a peak I climbed recently. Long since having passed the far more gradual grade of the delightfully meandering, well-maintained trail through the cool forest far below where the path was wide enough to accommodate two hikers side-by-side, I looked up at this last pitch to the peak looming before […]
Letter: Relationships – A Bird’s-eye View
I climbed a peak recently and except for the few other hikers elsewhere on the trail, I had a quiet, peaceful place alone, all to myself, with a bird’s-eye view of the majestic, distant, far higher peak, and the forested valleys and hills that stretched down and before me from where I sat and ate […]
Letter: Somewhere Down There
Somewhere down there, shuttling passengers to and from the airport in New Orleans, is a taxicab driver by the name of Jean Duval. I thought of him last evening as I looked out the window of the airplane carrying me back to Seattle following the conclusion of the National School Board Association annual conference. The […]
Letter: One Way Works for Transportation, But Not for Communication
Outside the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center there is an amalgamation of signs warning that this street is one way only. Stop. Do Not Enter. One Way. I had just come from a presentation by Keynote Speaker Dr. Timothy Shriver, Chairman of Special Olympics, Co-founder and CEO of UNITE, and Co-creator of The […]
Letter: Hide and Found
When my granddaughter was three years old, she and I sometimes played hide and seek. This is what would happen. I would say “…9…10! Read or not here I come!” And when I would then call out her name, followed by asking where she was, she would immediately respond, “I’m under the table!” The game […]
Letter: Learning, and Love, Eclipsed
No, the line on the map is not the “lucky strip of the US that will be within view of the total solar eclipse this April 8.” Rather the line on the map is my flight to New Orleans for a conference I am attending this same weekend as “the great American eclipse,” a conference […]
Letter: Rejection Can Breed Retaliation, But There’s a Better Way
The first day – of two back-to-back days climbing recently the peak pictured in this article – was crystal clear. From the very spot this foggy picture was taken on Day Two, on Day One, in contrast, the mountain in the distance commanded my attention for a good two hours as I ate my peanut […]
Letter: Relationships Threatened by Rivers
Majestic, mysterious, whimsical, the picturesque three-story chalet is perfectly situated in a grassy meadow. Though deep in the forest of the Olympic wilderness it cannot at all be described as nestled there among the trees but rather as commanding the most marvelous view anywhere to be found in the National Park. Rest awaits at the […]