We must learn to acknowledge that the creation is full of mystery; we will never entirely understand it. We must abandon arrogance and stand in awe. — Wendell Berry While much of the planet mourned for Dolly Parton last month, another vital American voice fell silent. Though not a household name, Wendell Berry was as important to the world of letters...
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The desperation in Manhattan was anything but quiet in 1991. After six years in the frantic, ear-grinding angst of the city, I was ready for a drastic change. While considering my next move I studied Thoreau’s Walden for guidance. “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!” old Henry advised, harrumphing about all the needless things we humans...
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In June the question hangs in the air like virga: When will it rain? June is upon us. For weeks the relentless northern Arizona sun has poured down on our beloved and beleaguered plateau, sucking moisture from its soils, baking its volcanic rocks and causing we its people to long fervently for rain. June, the month of virga–those tantalizing purple...
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Each year when the garden starts to fill in, it surprises and delights me. It erases my doubt and helps me to believe in tomorrow A cold snap in late February killed the spinach. Then a rodent got into the greenhouse and mowed down the endive and chard seedlings. But after these false starts, my garden has finally started to look more alive than dead....
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“With malice toward none, with charity for all…let us strive…to bind up the nation’s wounds.” — Abraham Lincoln After buying an Amtrak RailPass in February I spent a month criss-crossing America on trains, admiring my country: its tall mountains and broad plains, the great Mississippi and Columbia rivers, major cities...
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