Outside The Box

Has anyone in the long history of humanity ever changed their mind because someone insulted them? … More Still On The Playground

If you live in the mountains long enough, you will eventually have a bear story to tell. Despite pressure from hunting and encroachment by human development, bears continue to survive, and some would say thrive in our mountains. Bears are built for survival. They are powerful and agile omnivores. They have better eyesight than humans, … More Bear Necessities

It’s hard to live in the country without a truck. So we don’t. Our truck is over 20 years old, just getting broken in. It’s not the best looking truck around. Life on the farm has a way of leaving it looking somewhat…weathered.  But we love our old truck and we try to take care … More Good Samaritans

Educators and counselors talk about “teachable moments.” If we’re “living right,” as my grandfather used to say, we encounter these moments every day and often. Sometimes our best teachable moments are also ranked as our most embarrassing. When I am an old man telling and re-telling the stories of my youth and its glory days, I … More The Passing of the Flame

We’re going to talk about immigration today, but we’re going to step back from the drama without rushing automatically  into those well trodden camps on the left and right sides of virtual reality, ready to attack, and searching for just the right meme to signal our virtue to our respective tribes. We are so distracted while … More Cold Equations

Another Father’s Day weekend has gone. Those of us who have been orphaned by the passage of time can embrace, or we can confront these holidays in various and sometimes unpredictable proportions. As I move forward from this yearly observance, there is something I want to carry with me and keep close to my heart. … More The Unforgiving Minute

On a sunny day in July, a group of adjudicated teenagers in a Wolfcreek Wilderness program were having a blast going down the Chatooga River in canoes. Two other instructors and I had herded the group of ten down some fairly easy class two and three rapids, and we were relaxing, eddied out in a … More May the Circle be Unbroken

There is no amount of school violence that is acceptable, but what we have today is hardly an epidemic. It is just the opposite – an outlier in a continuing trend toward decreasing violence. Rather than making this issue about politics, let’s look at what we have done to facilitate this improvement, and let that inform our decisions about further improvement. … More Doomed

Another Memorial Day is behind us, and as the memory of the long weekend is carried away with the recycle bin full of beer cans, we hope, as we always hope, that we carry with us something of the occasion besides a few extra pounds. It is not enough. It is not nearly enough to … More Sacrifice, and Those Who Require It

The dew is heavy on the grass this morning and the creek is swollen from recent rain as the sun begins to peek over the mountain. The bees  are already busy carrying nectar from the poplars in full bloom. There is a sprayer full of a special mixture of neem oil and peppermint soap waiting … More Dilute, Divide and Divert