I joined the Rotary Club of Tacoma #8 in 1990. In 1996, I was elected President. When you are president, it’s up to you to decide what needs to be done and it’s your responsibility to encourage others to do the best they can for the organization. I was surprised when the paid Executive Director […]
To Ponder
Letter: We All Live, and Laugh, and Love, in the Same Language
As my wife and I approached the border into Tijuana, our van threading the barricades at the checkpoint, both of us, and all the members of our youth group seated behind us for that matter, had the same question. “No sé dónde está el baño?” Later, I would ask that question again, this time of […]
Letter: Tears On The Trail – “A Sacred Journey”
I write a lot I know about my wife, not having her hand anymore to hold, not able to share the events of the day, not huddled together as I read to her there toward the end, not contemplating in awestruck silence the beauty before us as we come around a bend in a trail. […]
Transportation and our Port of Tacoma
I’ve been a member of the Transportation Club of Tacoma since 2013. Almost every single month excluding July and August we have an excellent program about shipping, transportation, and quite often sharing information about local efforts helping our neighbors. Each year, an excellent magazine/membership directory is published. Some of our members work for the Port […]
Running the Bases
Bobbie arrived home with a down-on-his-luck look. He knew his mother would be starting dinner soon. He had a question to ask and already knew the answer. He came through the back door and saw his mother pealing potatoes for dinner. He hated boiled potatoes, but it was one food his mother rarely burned. She […]
Let’s Talk! – A Deer Nibbles Apples Left to Rot in the Grass
Are you sitting comfortably, your screens switched off, waiting to discuss or ponder another prompt from my friend Tyrean Martinson’s book over dinner? Want me to start or finish with my take on it? Here you are! I was probably around seven or eight when my grandparents took me and my family to a deer […]
Letter: Rings Without Diamonds
“How much farther?” I have often thought on the trail of posing myself that question of other hikers. When the two young ladies asked the question of me, I replied, “You don’t want to ask.” They laughed, I think a bit nervously, and headed on down the trail as I labored on up the ever […]
Across the Fence: Seltzer
I ran into the English Germanism Seltzer during my very first visit in the U.S. as a fifteen-year-old. My uncle in Maine loved to drink Seltzer with just a hint of natural fruit flavor. I tasted it and cringed. When I returned to Germany and told my mother about it, she stated, “You must have […]
Letter: One Last Row
The treasure of my life answered my call. “Would you come pick me up? I hit a big metal buoy and sunk my boat.” My partner on this adventure called marriage we launched 41 years ago retrieved me from the side of the road and the day after Christmas that year she helped me re-launch […]