First they came…
Well. You know the poem. I learned this poem at St. Olaf, a college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Harold Ditmanson, a professor held in such regard that the college named a wing of the ...
Uncategorized
But who will pay the piper?
The patron who pays the piper picks the tune. For as long as I can remember, in Alaska the patron has been the oil industry. With more than 85% of the State’s general fund revenue ...
Nature comes to you.
As far as urban areas go, you won’t find many cities as integrated into nature as this one. We have a fantastic trail system, we have moose and wolves that live within our city boundaries, ...
Holidays.
There are three holidays of note this week. The one that I got off from work is the least significant. On the 14th, we had the holiday of Saint Valentine of Rome. According to legend ...
Darkness into Light.
Much is said and written about the Yin/Yang of Solstice, the world in balance between darkness and light. Such a balance does not exist. Every year, as the sun dips below the horizon in Utqiaġvik ...
The hand of Franklin.
HMS Terror has been found well preserved in 11 meters of water. It appears her crew had taken time while abandoning her, so perhaps she was caught in the ice, and the crew then removed ...
The Greatness of the Past
There are several emails circulating that remember how much better things were. They shows kids playing outdoors without cell phones. They show dads and sons fishing, or teenagers dancing in a soda-shop, all clean, neat and ...
Coda to Radio
I recently commented that the “oldies” radio station was playing music from my college years. Driving into work, I heard the Goo Goo Dolls, followed by an announcer who said “I know, get over it. ...
Radio
My cohort has reached a new milestone in life. As I was driving home yesterday I realized that every song I heard was on the radio when I was in college. This would not be ...
Quiet urgency.
There is a certain vibe to public buildings that are mostly empty with those still left still having work to do. I am sitting in a university library over spring break. Desks are empty and ...
The works of others; the kindness of strangers.
There are bad days, days we wish to forget. A good writer can turn a horrid day into one to remember. Katherine Fritz is such a writer, and I would like to recommend her post ...
The Work of Christmas
When the song of the angels is stilled, When the star in the sky is gone, When the kings and princes are home, When the shepherds are back with their flock, The work of Christmas ...
Thanksgiving Eve
It’s so easy to dream of the days gone by, so hard to think of the times to come. The Grace to accept every moment as a gift is a gift that is given to ...
the Good Samaritan
It is in vogue for Presidential contenders to out-do each other with more extreme ways of saying “no” to Syrian refugees. When making sure the vetting process was not enough, Trump simply said we should ...
Fear itself.
All the world’s a stage. We are all merely players. In our time, we play many parts. Right now, the city of Raqqa is playing the part of whipping boy for the world’s most powerful ...
The Woman at the Well
I’ve had a lot to think about since listening to our President sing “Amazing Grace.” I normally would not reflect on the leader of a secular nation in a religious context, but after President Obama ...
Colors from home.
It should be fairly evident looking at my tag cloud to the right that I am fascinated with color. One of the things I do love is the changing of the seasons. I wold like ...
Filtered light
The Sun is the source of essentially all color on our planet. Sunlight is full-spectrum, and when you see something that has color, what you see is the reflected color that is not absorbed. When ...
So much for dreaming…
I have come to a fantastic realization; I have finally stopped following my dreams. I am now following my happiness instead. I have not given up on my dreams. If a leprechaun were to grant ...
Time
I probably owe some of you an apology. I went back through my blog, and I made public much of my old poetry. Some of it is good, some is not, but although all of ...
Spring
Sometimes I wonder if the astrologers have a point. It’s hard to conceive of a planet 50 million miles away having an effect on the goings on in life, but something seems to bundle events. ...
No answer.
I will get back to writing down my original thoughts soon. For now, I will redirect you to another blog, and ask that you go read in tribute to a friend who died last week. ...
A backlight modern shrine.
As we approached the Summer Solstice, I noted that my house was Negrange in reverse, with the morning solstice shining through a passage made my kitchen window and refrigerator, and lighting my television. Now, as ...
Small Wonders
There are times when creation absolutely shouts its wonder. Standing on the Llogara Pass, listening to the storm surge crash against the shore a thousand feet below; drifting through a pod of whales as they ...
First Candle
The inn was full, but the Innkeeper was not happy. This was not the usual crowd, these were dangerous, angry men. The Emperor, for reasons he kept to himself, had decreed that every male in ...
In color…
One of the benefits of my job is that I work on the 9th floor, overlooking Cook Inlet and the mountains beyond. This morning, I came to work to see them in pre-dawn shadows. Just ...
The day after…
I’ve decided how I am going to celebrate the end of the campaign season. While I have commented that this year’s fliers do not burn, with the right tinder anything will catch light. The night ...
Enough!
So, this is what a $50 Million election looks like. With the control of the Senate at stake, everyone is throwing in to the point where this race could well cost $200 per vote. There ...
Aurora
I have determined, and I am certain that science will someday confirm this, that the aurora have a direct impact on the meteorological conditions of the Anchorage bowl. If the ADN tells us a Massive ...
Seasonal work…
I started reading the following, and had several moments of “this is great, I need to quote it….” Well… it’s just better to send you over to read it. Some “bad job” stories are therapeutic, ...
A better Constitution, again.
In 1998, the State of Alaska made a horrible mistake. We adapted into our State Constitution an amendment that restricted the rights of others. Nothing else in the document singles out a group of people ...
The art of memorial.
My father is home from a recent trip Back East. He’s posted pictures of the New York area, and his posts are worth looking at. There is one series in particular that I keep going ...
More darkness, more light.
The stars were out as I went to work this morning. The moon was bright and low on the horizon, throwing enough light to read by. The moon itself provides no light. It has about ...
Darkness and Light
We are coming into the dark part of the year. The equinox behind us, there is more hours of darkness than hours of light, but light still reigns. There is no measure for darkness. We ...
Perspective
Yesterday’s earthquake was perhaps the strongest I have ever felt. Being on the 9th floor certainly enhanced the experience. The 1964 earthquake was 32,000 times as powerful.
A carbon tax is coming.
From a cynical point of view, political change comes about when a new group of people find a way to change the rules in such a way that they gain an advantage over previous champions. ...
Words.
So, we’re going to war again. Congress is full of people who claim concern over which countries will have “boots on the ground.” It’s an interesting linguistic trick. I suppose it’s safer to talk about the ...