Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
SEPTEMBER 14, 2021 – If you’re on the “normal” spectrum during most of your waking hours, the news over the past few years has doubtless left you “not so normal” on any objective scale of psychological conditions. The only antidote besides mind-altering substances is a hard break from “breaking news.” I’m 36 hours into cold-turkey …
SEPTEMBER 13, 2021 – When I hike the trails through my tree garden, I take incremental measures to weed out the prolix, wild raspberry bushes. I love cultivated raspberries and miss the ones that used to grow in our backyard at home. The wild ones, however, are a different animal . . . er, plant. …
SEPTEMBER 12, 2021 – Recently, our friend R_______ found herself in a catch-22 pinch. After undergoing a medical procedure under light sedation, she was told that she could leave the clinic only with a responsible adult but that she’d have to exit within two hours after the procedure. R__________’s designated “responsible adult”—one of her daughters—wasn’t …
SEPTEMBER 11, 2021 – On 9/11 I shared in the universal reaction to horror wrought by extreme misanthropes. Then came the “War on Terror”—a game for which we set the rules: 1. The game has no end; 2. No matter how many points we score, the other side wins by scoring once; and 3. The …
SEPTEMBER 10, 2021 – Recently, in the outdoor seating of Boca Rica, a local Mexican restaurant popular for its authenticity, I heard a remarkable story. While ordering, I wore a bright blue, cloth mask bearing the slogan, Make America Intelligent Again. I’d been invited to lunch by W______, a retired banking client of mine, with …
SEPTEMBER 9, 2021 – With Afghanistan dominating headlines lately, when was the last mention of Iraq, Syria or . . . Myanmar? Thanks to the persistent, courageous journalism of one Emily Fishbein, I read and thought about Myanmar quite a lot late on Tuesday. That’s when I received Jeff O’s email containing a link to …
SEPTEMBER 8, 2021 – While hiking recently on our “back 40” I encountered a patch of wild strawberries. It reminded me of Wild Strawberries by famous Swedish filmmaker, Ingmar Bergman. I first “experienced” Bergman’s films while I was a student at Interlochen Arts Academy—by name and curricula, an “artsy-fartsy” establishment. It was attended by many students …
SEPTEMBER 7, 2021 – On Labor Day I labored on a cabin project. Just as a president would do before giving the green light to a dicey military operation, I gathered intelligence and assembled a 10-point checklist, the last item being, “Wing it.” But as in evacuation after losing a war, s _ _ _ …
SEPTEMBER 6, 2021 – During a woodland walk yesterday in the reaches behind the Red Cabin, my wife and I encountered a formal sign marking the entrance to Grindstone Woods Conservancy, 70-acres of undeveloped land that lie behind us and adjoining property owners along the northwest shore of Grindstone Lake. The sign was crafted by …
SEPTEMBER 5, 2021 – Whenever I hike to the old family cabin, I think about our grandparents, Ragnar and Hilda Nilsson. “Ga,” as we called our grandmother, and Grandpa followed long-established cabin rituals, which fascinated us impressionable kids. Ga came from Småland, a southern province of Sweden. She’d grown up on a farm and attended …
SEPTEMBER 4, 2021 – When Ida unleashed her fury on the Northeast earlier in the week (after wreaking havoc over Louisiana), in just one hour over three inches of rain fell in New York City’s Central Park. This was a record. What I found most disturbing about this is that the record it broke had …
SEPTEMBER 3, 2021 – Late yesterday afternoon, after a day of business and busy-ness, I took to the woods to do some trail work. As the light faded behind an overcast sky, I repaired to the dock and peered at the windswept lake. Not a single boat—underway or stationary—appeared on the water. I scanned the …
SEPTEMBER 2, 2021 – Out of respect for people’s privacy, I’ll refer to the lead characters of this post as “A,” “B,” “C,” and “D.” They are members of one big unhappy family that used to be happy. I am very well acquainted with each of them. The unhappiness that has descended upon them is …
SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 – When I prepared to escape Monday afternoon, I collected what I’d need for a week of isolation at the Red Cabin—food, phone, tools, clothing, computer, et cetera. After 120 miles, however, I remembered what I’d forgotten: my journal and The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben. I felt like an …
AUGUST 31, 2021 – Yesterday, my wife and I fell into a funk over issues that divide the country. One matter was the pandemic, brought home by the advisability of me getting a Covid test—and quarantining. Thank goodness we have the Red Cabin, and of course, my wife and I are fully vaccinated. I made …
AUGUST 30, 2021 – The other day, my sister Jenny wrote a funny email to our other three sisters and me, describing the big music show in Central Park that Hurricane Henri cut short. As I chuckled at her descriptions of Andrea Bocelli, Jennifer Hudson, and Barry Manilow, I thought, Who will save this email? …
AUGUST 29, 2021 – Last week my wife accompanied our going-on-six granddaughter (on roller skates), Illiana, down the alley. Soon I heard, “Our shrubs along the alley look terrible.” I jumped to. Soon I was on our stepladder, reaching to trim this year’s growth off our 12-foot-high shrubs. For an hour I clipped until I’d …
AUGUST 28, 2021 – “Stay off the MSG,” our son Byron texted in response to a synopsis of my dream Thursday night. Years ago he would have been right. Whenever I ate lunch at the Nanking a block from my office tower in downtown Minneapolis, I experienced hallucinogenic dreams the following night—after my hands tingled …
AUGUST 27, 2021 – As one of many, I’m following news reports and commentaries about the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. Much attention is on the moment; less focus on 20 years of failed policy. The ragged retreat is the bad fruit of long-lived failure. The more I read and listen, the more I scream, as …
AUGUST 26, 2021 – Today’s headlines could drive any thinking person into a cave, protected from a world on fire and free from people obsessed with their individual freedom—to hell with the rest of us. To calm myself down, I decided to play an old mind game: What would I do with a billion bucks? …
AUGUT 25, 2021 – Yesterday, while sitting on the porch, working away on my laptop, I espied our neighbor Kent walking past in the alley. Anticipating a profitable diversion from work, I called out to our local curmudgeon. He’s a retired English teacher who’s devoured nearly every piece of American fiction worth reading. He’s also …
AUGUST 24, 2021 – Yesterday I watched an exchange on FoxNews—my “go-to” source for rightwing propaganda. Tucker Carlson, a highly compensated creature of the rightwing audience-rightwing media feedback loop, was interviewing Brit Hume, the outlet’s stately “senior policy analyst.” The subject was “Biden’s botched evacuation” from Afghanistan. Mr. Snarly and Mr. Stately reveled in Biden’s …
AUGUST 23, 2021 – I first cordoned off the crime scene. I accomplished this figuratively, visualizing a “NO GO” zone (except for myself) within a 20-foot radius of the base of the sign. Next, I examined the sign itself for clues. Except for the popped rivets and 90-degree bend in the stake, the sign itself …
AUGUST 22, 2021 – Yesterday I took a hike in the tree garden of Björnholm. It was my inspection since our recent three-week road trip to New England. The day was beautiful—warm, sunny, with a breeze off the lake and reaching into the woods With hand-clippers I tamed the more aggressive raspberry bushes that had …
AUGUST 21, 2021 – I used to joke that in “Libertaria,” traffic lights would be privately owned, coin-operated, and voluntary. I’m no longer joking. Our biggest single threat is unfettered freedom to do whatever it takes to make a buck—and whatever purveyors of falsehoods, religious beliefs, or conspiracy theories order us (ironically) to do. What’s …