I am a chopper of wood and carrier of water, a keeper of bees, digger of soil, and washer of dishes, but when people ask me "what do you do" I usually satisfy them with "I'm in information technology." If they really want to know, I'll tell them about the decade as a wilderness guide. Some jobs are vocations, some are avocations, but that one was an evocation. I also wrangle pixels and try to herd them into representations of coherent thoughts, which is a provocation. :-)
The making and keeping of commitments is a basic requirement for a civil society. Civilization falls apart when people stop keeping promises. On a personal level, keeping commitments is necessary for self-esteem. In addition to keeping the promises we make to others, we need to keep the promises we make to ourselves, like sticking to … More Commitment
The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day can be the most enjoyable time of the year. The kids and the grand kids are still home from school and busy making the holiday memories they will cherish the rest of their lives. The decorations are still up and the gifts are still new, but the … More A Moment of Clarity
We love this time of year, and the commingling of memories both personal and ancestral. No one knows how many centuries humans waited anxiously during the darkening days until the sun reversed its course on the Winter Solstice. The spirit of western civilization huddles by the fire in the long dark nights of countless northern … More A Time of Celebration
It’s Sunday morning and the power just came back on. It was out for most of the last two days and nights, and while I’m grateful for its return, I’m also somewhat pensive. We slept well last night. The phone was out and the Internet was down. We spent the evening around the fire talking, … More A Word of Thanks
We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. C.S. Lewis With the waning of interest in professional football it has been suggested that the oddsmakers could recoup their losses by taking bets on who the next celebrity … More Gentlemen
The weather finally feels right for the time of year, but it’s a little confusing. August felt like September, and then in October we had more of the June weather that should have come in July. It’s November now, but just a few days ago the frogs were croaking in our frog pond and the … More Like Thanksgiving
The amount of information available today can be confusing. It is intimidating to some, and overwhelming to others. The newspaper we hold in our hands is almost archaic in a world that clicks, pokes and swipes, heads down, shoulders slumped, eyes glazed – constantly connected in an endless search for stimulation and distraction. Everything that … More Curators
The screen door slams at the back door of our old family home. It has a distinctive sound. No other screen door sounds quite like it, and when I hear it I travel through time. It is summer and my mother is carrying a load of wash to hang out on the clothesline. My dad … More All Hands on Deck
Some of my favorite memories are October memories. I remember Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin (which we still watch every year), dressing up like Batman to beg the neighbors for candy and jumping into big piles of leaves. Caramel apples, kettle corn and hot chocolate on frosty mornings take me back to the kind … More A Picture is Worth a Thousand Rounds
It was my intention this week to write about gun violence in America and how it is a failure of our culture, not our legal system. I wanted to write about how we are inundated by violent images from an early age, yet our understanding of the issue is no more sophisticated than the teenager … More Shift
