What happened this beautiful morning, barely a ripple on the water, will probably never happen again. But what a morning, what a memory. With the oldest – and the smallest of our children – as cox, the rest of us remarked later how odd it seemed to not have to look over our shoulder. That […]
Letter: A portrait of a leader
We had gathered for our annual picnic in the park mostly to be together but also to traditionally share – in this month to remember our parent’s birthdays – our usual family lunchtime fare when as kids we were growing up: baloney sandwiches. My brother, whose birthday is this week, chewed a simple self-portrait into […]
Letter: Planted together
We weren’t sure what it was. Had to look it up. Like, way up. Turns out – eventually it’ll turn out – it’s apparently a sunflower. Just a bunch of random seeds for $1.00 all planted together in the garden space and suddenly, reaching for space, it seems like overnight, there it was. Jack and […]
Letter: Showers of blessing
The massive wooden door of the castle opened slowly as if on its own accord. The girls of the community, some from fairly impoverished dwellings – certainly in contrast to where they now stood – starred mouth agape in awe as the ‘La vie du chateau’ door responded to their shy, tentative rap of the […]
Letter: She’s Dutch
Which says a lot about her. Flowers. Beauty. Resilience. In a few days we’ll celebrate our 48th Anniversary. We’ll spend all day that special day in cancer treatment. Battling together. This past Father’s Day I received a picture from our just-learned-to-walk granddaughter. Sitting in her little white rocking chair, her smile is so big four […]
Letter: Independence Day – Pull your weight, sign your name
Early morning before the sun is even awake and not a breath of a breeze bestirs the blackness of the water, little red blinking bow lights wink through the darkness, the whooshing throb of matched oars and creaking oarlocks the only whisper that an amphibious monster has passed. Now a sport, crew once won independence. […]
Letter: “A ship does not sail with yesterday’s wind”
The quote is from Louis L’Amour’s “The Walking Drum.” ‘I have heard of your family name,’ the burly, red-haired ruffian shackled to the oar next to this newest galley slave said, “but what of you?’ From the “enthralling lands of the 12 century”, to July 2, 1863, to today, it’s a good question. “What of […]
Letter: America returns to the Old West
There they stand. Nonchalant. Implacable. Disreputable. And they could care-the-heck less. Symptomatic of our times. The final four, as laid down a couple three-thousand years ago: “Wickedness, contempt, dishonor and disgrace.” It’s how it all goes down. Always does. In that order. Choose your villain. They are all the same. Desperadoes of deceit. Compadres in […]
Letter: Hanging by a thread, when bottom has hit rock. The value of crises.
There was no food, but they were fed up. Fed-Ex: Food-nada. A horrible famine had been brought about in a besieged city. Faced with the desperateness of their situation, hanging by a food-famished thread, the four – forlorn, forgotten and forsaken-by-society – made a risky decision. And therein lay the mechanism that put in motion […]