• Cultural Commentary,  Good stories,  O, Humanity!,  Travel

    Viva The Las Vegas I Remember

    “I would never go there,” the group’s leader said––the person with all the religious status. His remark silenced comments from others.  “If I now recognize evil in other people, is it not because I have become evil too? If I see someone has a suspicious nose, have I not smelled the same bad things?” Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club I had told coworkers that for my birthday my husband surprised me with tickets to fly to Las Vegas to see Celine Dion. This guy’s comment made me think how easy it is to make wide verbal swipes against people and places. What made him think he knew anything about the…

  • About Me,  O, Humanity!,  Travel

    “O Christmas Tree” and Me

    Merchants are not the only ones who begin decorating in October. When I visited the Biltmore House and Estate in Asheville, North Carolina on October 19, Christmas trees had been decorated and set in nearly every public room of the 250 room mansion built in 1895. That’s right. 1895. Traditions around the evergreen tree and branches date back centuries to the Egyptians but became popular during the reign of England’s Queen Victoria who married Prince Albert from Germany. In the 1500s, Germany began bringing evergreen trees into homes at Christmas (“O Tannenbaum”) and in the 1800s, the decorated tree tradition made its way across the ocean to America. Here’s a…

  • About Me,  Travel

    You Can’t Always Get What You Want

    Fifteen days, ten states, and 3,170 miles later, my first morning back home almost felt as if I’d never left. Familiar and comforting and reassuring, Home Sweet Home. My daughter informs me homeostasis is the term that describes how the brain seeks comfort, avoids pain, and resists change. So why in the world do I want to travel? First day back home, I awoke to 38 degrees, plunging into Fall, cold and wet. I settled into my morning routine: coffee, reading, a visit with my younger daughter and granddaughter Charlotte. I like to begin the day in first gear, not overdrive. So why would I ever leave home? “When I…

  • About Me,  Cultural Commentary,  Faith,  Travel

    People Are Complicated. So Are Bridges.

    In a message by Dr. Earl Palmer, he used the Golden Gate Bridge to illustrate a basic truth about life. He said that the “secret” of this monumental bridge’s strength and stability depends on two main cables. These cables he compared to simplicity and flexibility. It still amazes me when a situation triggers memory of an illustration I heard a long, long time ago. While seeking simplicity, my life still gets complicated. The design of this “eighth wonder of the world in Northern California” does not depend on hundreds of cables strung all over the bay area like a web. Instead, 2 main cables anchored in bedrock on each side…

  • Journaling,  Travel

    Survivors of an Alaskan Adventure

    As the captain of the ship pulled into port in Juneau, Alaska, guiding this massive vessel as if parallel parking between other cruise ships, I thought of my mother trying to teach me how to parallel park a car. Alaska always makes me think of my mom. One time, Mom came home from work, her eyes dancing and her tongue wagging as she played with the idea of moving to Fairbanks, Alaska. Like a cat with catnip, she pawed and batted the prospects, and I don’t remember when she lost interest. A great place to visit, but I would not want to live there. My mom, a young widow, displayed…

  • Journaling,  Photography,  Travel

    Into the Wild of Alaska: Adventure Stories and Perspective

    Yesterday’s visit with a friend who stopped by, this friend who lives in the mountains of Colorado surrounded by wilderness, prompted memories and conversation about the 15 day trip my husband and I took to Alaska. This was our second trip, and what I had in mind was a couple of weeks on board a ship, resting and recovering, and celebrating my recent graduation from 4 arduous years in seminary. Instead, we boarded a ship in Vancouver that let us off in 3 days for the rest of the journey through Alaska and the Yukon by train, boat, bus, and some of the territory traveled on foot. Who knew? Much…

  • Books,  Cultural Commentary,  Good stories,  Reading,  Travel

    Man’s Search for Meaning . . . of Words

    A book I recently read and am now listening to on Audible weaves together the story of 3 boys whose lives intersect and take them on an adventure via The Lincoln Highway [1]. “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few are to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.” ― Francis Bacon, The Essays Already referred to as a classic, The Lincoln Highway, like Amor Towles’ previous novels––A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules of Civility––the payoff for readers comes…