September 3, 2020

I was privileged to be part of a conversation discussing (I was smart enough to listen, and not talk) the effect (and affect) of returning to school.  This came from people located across the country and in rural, town, and city locations.  As most school districts and college/universities are open for fall terms, the ongoing conversation on “what to do” has shifted from administrative offices to homes and hallways.  The questions seem to center around how to provide the essential services (food, safe housing, human interaction) offered by these institutions while maintaining some form of separation to curtail the rising spread of the virus.  This is a conversation that has not been addressed on the national level.

As Higher Education opens it has come with the normal parties and thoughts of invulnerability that were displayed over Spring Break and Memorial Day.  Most schools have been conscientious to restrict on campus activities and enforce masks and distancing.  This has resulted in students taking their events to off campus private venues.  The result has been a rush of new outbreaks that has gone beyond our original cases and daily numbers.  It has also resulted in student suspensions, school closures, and shifts to online classes.

Public Education is struggling without clear oversight or direction, and every district across the country has a different solution to the problem.  Keeping kids in as small of groups as possible is the goal, so if one gets sick the whole school does not tumble.   Some districts have chosen to put children in learning pods, monitored by daycare workers and an online teacher presence.  Some are being taught entirely from home, and usually after an outbreak.  Others are split between in person days and days at home, with students alternating days and a thorough cleaning in between.  For many parents it comes down to what can I afford?  Can I be home with my children?  Can I not work?  Grandparents have traditionally helped resolve this issue, but that is not safe now.  Instead we all try to muddle through.

THOUGHTS:  This indecision has not only caused problems for working parents, but also for the children.  One parent told of his seven-year-old who fell to the floor crying when told her school was not going to open.  She had been looking forward to going back since May.  There was another side spoken by a grandmother.  “This generation will have skills previous ones did not have.  At two (my granddaughter) knows to wear a mask and why.  What has she learned?  To respect others and that her actions affect others.  In this (my) corner of the world that has high value.”  I hope it has value in yours as well.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

September 2, 2020

I have heard that if we live long enough, we all get our 15 minutes of fame.  That is apparently true as my 91-year-old mom made the paper last week.  Mom’s article was professionally written and fairly accurate.  It tells of her self-quarantine since last March.  When asked how she was coping during the pandemic she responded, “You meet every day head on and you do what you can.”  Mom mentioned she kept busy with a weekly family zoom call and listening to three different church service broadcasts on Sunday’s, including one from her son in Arkansas (my moment in print!).

Several years ago, Melissa and I were visiting in Arkansas over the Christmas break.  We were trying to get a light display set up at the camp I was director of and had gone into town to examine the different displays in a local park.  This was a walk-through experience that included a small mini train that transported visitors around and through the one square block of light displays.  This was a chilly New Year’s Day and we were the only ones in the park.  A photographer approach and asked if he could take our picture.  He was from the local paper that has a daily feature of people “out and about” and said he had been to three locations and we were the first people he had found.  We were in the next morning’s edition.

Mom and dad had always been active and traveled extensively around the world since his retirement.  I recall mom saying when he died 10 years ago that she would never be able to travel again.  That was before the trips to China and South Africa, not to mention the annual trips to Maine for my sister and the various side trips to family and friends across the country.  Now the only buildings she has entered other than her own are medical buildings for doctor’s appointments.  Just as with many of us, the pandemic has forced mom to change.

THOUGHTS:  Mom’s article ended saying how she hoped for the time when she could resume life as she knew it.  There is no way of knowing when that might happen, but as she said, “You have got to be positive.”  Life as we knew it will probably never return.  That does not mean we will not come through the pandemic.  It just means we will come out of this forever changed.  The same could be said for 9/11 and other transitions that we have faced in the past.  Change does not have to mean bad; it just means different.  It is how we react to change that makes our experience good or bad.   We need to look for the positive.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

September 1, 2020

The rains let up over the weekend, so I decided it was time to go fishing.  I have mentioned the new sow bugs had arrived and I was eager to get one into the water.  When I arrived at the lake, I saw the vegetation had grown up around the shore.  While there were holes in the water cover, there was no way to drag a wooly and a dropper through the thick growth.  I have both a mouse and a frog fly that I have used on occasion and I thought one of these might be perfect.  I went back to the truck to tie on my fly.

We are planning our first trip since the pandemic arrived in February for later this month.  We have secured an Airbnb and booked a morning with a local guide on the Little Red River.  This is one of the premier Brown Trout streams in the nation, including the world record (40# 4 oz).  I took an afternoon last week to get all my fishing tackle arranged.  This included re-matching reels with poles and oiling and putting new line on one of the reels that had become difficult to cast.  I do this periodically but was surprised to find how many flies and hooks had been purchased that were stored in odd places.  They are now arranged by type so I can grab what I need and not worry about hauling the excess.  My mouse was in another bag.

I tied on a popper and fished for thirty minutes without a bite (and losing my popper).  I moved to a spot where there was a break in the cover and threw out my cat pole and put a worm on my newly strung bobber line.  I was pleased to see how well the reel now worked.  I caught a small bluegill and tossed it back in.  I quickly caught another and decided to bait it up on my Carolina rig.  I was going to get a bass one way or another.  As I tossed this line out a truck pulled up beside me.  It was the Game and Fish officer.  When I gave him my license, he told me he had never seen a license like this but did not think it was for fishing.  He called my name into the dispatcher and they told him what it was.  I had purchased an annual 65+ license, and not the lifetime permit.   As he returned the license, he suggested I could save money if I got the lifetime license instead. Btw: this is a different fish.

THOUGHTS:  I was concerned when I was told my license was not valid.  I had delayed fishing on two different occasions when I had gone to a lake and realized my license was expired.  I purchased my new license online and carried it with me.  Great, I thought.  After all that I am going to get a citation.  I try to be overly conscientious when it comes to obeying the law.  I wear my seat belt, only drive four miles over the speed limit (on cruise control), do not use my cell phone (unless hands free), and I do not fish without a license.  I do this so I do not get in trouble, but also because I realize doing so is for the good of other people, even if not for me.  It is the same reason I wear a mask.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

August 31, 2020

I have mentioned that I am participating in a four-part webinar on “Dismantling Racism,” with Warren Chalklen, Ph.D.  This last Friday the topic was on combating institutional and structural racism.  Institutional racism is “the discriminatory treatment, policies, or practices within organizations and institutions.”  An example might be unequal pay women or BIPOC than for white males preforming the same job.  Structural racism takes the next step, as “a system of public policy, institutional practices and other norms to perpetuate racial group inequality.”  This takes the single institutions practice and makes it the norm for the entire culture and all institutions.

One of the points discussed was called Root Cause Analysis.  This is an approach to “identify the underlying causes of an incident so that the most effective solutions can be identified and implemented.”  The process asks and then answers why the event occurred, and then asks why the cause (answer) occurred.  By walking this out to the seventh level we begin to understand the underlying cause (systemic racism) of what can produce an obvious easy answer or the perplexing misunderstanding for why it happened.

A jarring example for me was to take the issue of providing food and housing help to the poor.  This is something many of us do routinely, either personally or through trusted institutions.  Root Cause Analysis takes this the next step.  The question is not whether to provide food or housing for the poor, it is instead to ask why are they poor in the first place?   From there we can ask how we can bring about the necessary steps to accomplish change.  This lets us address the outcome (economic inequality) rather than just providing food.

THOUGHTS:  I had a mentor in East Oakland who told a story of providing food for a poor family.  The wife had come to his office and asked for help to get food on the table for her four kids.  He gladly took her to the grocery and helped her carry the two sacks into the kitchen.  The husband stood there glaring angrily at him for his assistance.  What he realized was he was superseding the husbands perceived role as provider.  While he continued to provide help with food to others, he also changed his approach to include assistance with jobs, loans, cars, and banking.  He showed me a response to the Root Cause.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

August 29, 2020

I am not sure what response I should have to our two National Conventions.  What I saw was more One-up-Man-ship and praise for “my side” than platform.  I have always felt sorry for whatever party is forced to go first, Democrat or Republican (the incumbent has the final say).  The RNC chose to not provide a platform this year, stating on Sunday they were going to wait until 2024 to let people know where they stood.  Instead they abdicated to “whatever Trump wants to do” for a party platform.  If I heard correctly, that was to make the same promises that were propagated in 2016.

I am sorry if you are offended, but I was disturbed by the appropriation of the White House as a backdrop for political rhetoric.  The First Lady took over her revamped rose garden on Wednesday and the President took over the South Lawn on Thursday.  This was the first time the White House has been used by an incumbent for a campaign rally in the 228-year existence of the White House.  Some would say this was because of the stay at home order of the CDC due to the corona virus.  I would agree if any of the 1500 people gathered would have distanced or worn masks.  Instead, this appears to be another super-spreader event like Tulsa.

The DNC ended with a firework display, and that was then dwarfed by the RNC display on Thursday.  Everything seems to be bigger and better, which happens when you do the same thing.  I was discouraged when the DNC sent a theme of “the country will be destroyed if the Republicans win.”  The RNC response was to make the same claim about the Democrats.  Considering both responses, we appear to be on the verge of a lose-lose situation.

THOUGHTS:  I read an NPR article that said, “Both Democrats and Republicans are saying this is a battle for the soul of the nation. And they are both right. It just depends on what you want that soul to look like.”  We have had contentious elections in the past and there has always been a peaceful transition of power.  Regardless of who wins, we need to respond by doing the work to bring reconciliation to a frustrated and torn land.  If we instead choose to widen our division, we will create what both conventions predicted, a lose-lose situation.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

August 28, 2020

My doorbell rang as I sat working in my office.  I was a little surprised as we have had few visitors during the outbreak.  I am waiting on a FedEx shipment of San Juan Worms for a fishing trip we have scheduled in September and I thought that might be what it was.  Instead, it was the caretaker for the church that adjoins our back lot.  He mentioned the tree that had fallen on our property and wondered if I would be willing for a friend of his to cut it up for firewood.  I did not know what he was talking about and followed him outside.  Sure enough, the large oak tree that stood behind our shop had been torn up by its roots and now lay along the tree line between our properties.  There was a large root ball still attached to the tree.

The recent heavy rains had saturated the ground and the strong winds combined to bring the tree down.  It was too strong to break, so it was literally torn up by its roots.  As the caretaker and I stood around the tree talking he mentioned how many trees had been lost since they built the church in 1990 (Melissa built her house in 1995).  Apparently, the tree line had once been a small forest dividing our properties.  When I asked Melissa about this, both she and my niece told me about the ice storm that devastated the trees in 2006.  The ice accumulated to nearly three inches think, and the branches started coming down.  Many of the trees also fell from the weight, making a resounding crash in the night.  The oak had survived that catastrophe.

The tree was big enough it could have been used for lumber.  When the shop was in operation it had the saws and planers necessary to transform this tree into several hundred board feet of prime oak.  Sadly, without asking us if we wanted it, Melissa’s dad had given all the equipment away soon after we moved back.  As I looked at the size of the tree, I realized how lucky we were.   Had the tree fallen toward the shop rather than away from it, it would have crushed the building and everything we now have stored in it.  Thankfully, it missed.

THOUGHTS:  As I thought about our tree it struck me how what it had faced was like what we are now facing.  The tree had been strong enough to survive the ice storm that had claimed many of its companions.  It had continued to grow and become stronger.  However, with the combination of rain and wind it was brought down.  I have often heard the adage, “To bend but not break.”  Our tree refused to bend, and so it instead broke.  Its strength was its downfall (literally).  Some are telling us America is too strong to be brought down by the economic devastation wrought by covid-19 and systemic racism.  I hope we do not miss this opportunity to start bending.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

August 27, 2020

I have been in, and thankfully so far, lived through a variety of different natural disasters.   I was staying at the family farm in the early 1960’s when a tornado came through and took out every building except the house where we huddled in the basement.  I was in Salt Lake City in 1983 when nearly four inches of rain fell over a three day span, forcing the city to sandbag Seventh South Street to create a river to move the water from an overflowing stream to the Great Salt Lake.  I missed the ’89 quake that dropped the freeways in the Bay Area, but was still dealing with the rebuild of both the quake and the Berkeley Hills Fire when I arrived two years later.  Back in Kansas, my first year as director of a conference center saw a 500 year flood that isolated Melissa and I on the island that was our house.  Last year I was in Fort Smith when the river crested at a record high of 42.5 feet.  That does not include the number of smaller earthquakes, tornadoes and floods I have experienced.  Melissa suggested I stop moving.

Now living in Arkansas I am experiencing the side effects of the hurricanes that come into the Gulf and peter out somewhere around us.  We do not get the high winds and storm surge experienced on the coast, but we do get plenty or rain.  The biggest difficulty is flash flooding in low areas and people who think they can drive through the water.  We lost five people to the 2019 flood mentioned above.  One was a delivery driver when her truck was washed off the road and into a ditch.  Horrifically, she was on a 911 call while she drowned.

The Gulf just missed having a rare double hurricane event this week.  Marco made landfall Wednesday as a tropical storm that brought us rain all day long.  We already have flood warnings issued for most of the state.  Laura hit land as a near category five hurricane on Thursday.  The 150 mph winds are expected to produce a 15’-20’ storm surge as much as 30 miles inland.   Some described this surge as “unsurvivable.”  Sadly, many decided to ride the storm out.  While the surge was not as bad as expected, wind damage appeared far worse as metal buildings were torn to shreds.  Already over half a million are without power as the storm continues into upper Louisiana and southern Arkansas as a category two hurricane.

THOUGHTS:  Even though it was still a steady rain, last night the sky opened for the beautiful sunset pictured.  It amazes me how even as we torture our environment by dumping heat and pollution into the air and water, it is has yet to abandon us.  Scientists tell us that Mars had enough abuse, and let its atmosphere go.  It seems we are trying to do the same with the Earth.  The shutdown caused by the pandemic proved if we just stop polluting our world, it is still able to heal itself.  We are getting close to the point where that will no longer be possible.  Then we will cause a collapse, mass extinctions, and the next dominant species will step up.  Remember, that is how we got here.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

August 26, 2020

Our lilies came out over the weekend.  Two had bloomed earlier and then died, and then suddenly we had eight more poking up through the soil.  This flower is called the Belladonna Lily or Naked Ladies (Amaryllis belladonna).  The plant produces a green, leafy growth similar to a floppy tulip that emerges in spring and dies back by midsummer. In late summer, leafless stems produce elegant, pink flowers. Belladonna Lilies are hardy in zones 7 – 11 and are considered annuals in all other zones. That means our plants return every spring and summer.

When I told Melissa they were up I called them Bare Naked Ladies, which I thought was their common name.  I was informed that Barenaked Ladies was a band while the flowers were simply   Naked Ladies.  The Canadian rock band formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario, and developed a cult following in Canada beginning in 1991.  Their self-titled cassette became the first independent release to be certified gold in Canada. They reached mainstream success in Canada in 1992 and United States success in 1996.  In the 2010’s, the band became well-known for creating the theme song for, “The Big Bang Theory.”  The group has sold over 15 million records, including albums and singles, and was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in March 2018.

With all the rain and weather we have gotten this summer I have been mowing right around two times a week.  I have also been mowing at a higher blade level.  If I cut it shorter my yard ends up looking like I am getting ready to bale hay.  I usually only do weed eating every second or third time, depending on how energetic I feel.  When I was getting the yard ready on Saturday I got too close to the Naked Ladies and cut two of them down.  While I felt sheepish about my guffaw, I got up my courage and told Melissa what I had done.  She said it was fine, as long as it is not one of her succulents.

THOUGHTS:  This is not the first time I have taken a weed eater to someone’s flowers.  I was helping my brother mow a tenant’s yard years ago and he came running over with his arms waving.  I was weeding through the flowers that had been replanted along the side of the house.  It seems his tenant had planted them unknown to my brother and he had done the same the month before.  Like my Naked Ladies, it is hard enough to keep from making mistakes when you know what to expect.  Like the tenant’s flowers, it is even harder when you do not know what to expect.  This summer we seem to be finding out what has been known, but not always recognized.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

August 25, 2020

I heard of a great place to catch bream over the weekend.  It was at the mouth of a stream that fed a lake near where I work.  I am always excited about trying a new fishing spot, especially when the fish are biting.  I drove up to work for a meeting and then checked some logistics for the coming Sunday.  I changed into a pair of shorts as I was expecting to be wading, and then headed for the stream.  Even though I did not know the exact location, I knew where the lake was, and I could see the stream on my phone map.  I took a road that looked like it led to the stream, but it stopped well short of any water.  I asked two park workers who were stopped for a break if they knew how to get to the site.  They told me the easiest way was by kayak.  If I wanted to hike, I could follow the trail from here for about ten miles, but they did not know if it went to the stream.  That seemed like a long shot for a “maybe.”  I declined the hike.

Since I was already at the lake, I decided I might as well do some fishing.  I drove to the boat launch to see if there was a way to get along the old dam that had been breached to combine the two lakes into one.  When I stopped, a roadrunner scooted across the parking lot toward a line of trees along the shore.  I stayed in the truck but tried to get a picture for my birding.  The bird kept running in and out of the trees, feasting on the insects it scared up.  Although I took several pictures, I was a little too far and the bird too quick to get a good one.  Then the ranger pulled up and the bird took off.  I decided to let my fuzzy picture count.

By now I was hooked on doing some more birding and seeing if I could find a way near the stream.  Google showed a road went alongside the stream, so I decided to follow it.  While this began as a paved road it quickly became improved dirt.  That threw me and I ground to a stop.  Just off the path was a fawn not more than 20 feet away.  The map indicated the road followed along the stream for several miles and then came back to the main highway, so I continued my trek to find water.  I passed a trail head and decided to follow it downhill on foot.  While it led to the stream, it was basically dry.  There were several dozen small, crested birds with white bellies that darted on the water catching insects.  Once more they were too fast for me to focus my camera and I did not know what they were (they did not count).  At least I got a picture of the fawn.

THOUGHTS:  I read a book several years ago called, Good to Great, by Jim Collins.  His point was too many companies (and people) settle with doing good, and do not put in the extra planning and work it takes to be great.  That is what I did with my roadrunner picture, and why today’s blog is titled Fawn rather than Roadrunner.  This is also the specter that faces our nation during the current unrest and pandemic.  Some are saying we have done a good job addressing the unrest and fighting the pandemic.  The problem is, good is not even close to making a permanent change to our systemic racism or stopping the virus.  To make America great, we need to do the work and follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

August 24, 2020

While I was watching the Royals the other night (during a 7-2 loss) the commentators mentioned how the first glove you ever owned always stayed with you.  It reminded me of the first glove I ever owned.  This was an old timer.  I do not remember where it came from, but I do remember how it was transformed.  I recall the glove was given to my father.  It was an old glove at the time.  It was literally five padded fingers used to soften the sting when the ball was caught, with no webbing.  I got this glove in the early 1960’s and the webbing that later became the norm came into common use between the thumb and forefinger in 1920.

I remember thinking when I first saw the glove, “How am I going to use this?”   Luckily, our small town had a saddlery shop.  My father took me to the shop, and we asked if he could weave a piece of leather between the fingers to keep them together, and then put some sort of webbing between the thumb and forefinger so I could have something that resembled a modern glove.  He was more than happy to oblige, and my first baseball glove was born.

I might be wrong, but I do not think this is the type of glove either of the announcers were referring to.  They both played professional baseball and probably never saw a pre-1920’s glove without webbing.  Instead, I came from a small town where poverty was the norm.  I never recall feeling poor or impoverished, but as I look back on my life it is obvious that was the case.  I find it interesting how what we experience as the norm is juxtaposed to what everyone else experiences.

THOUGHTS:  One of the reasons for rushing the children back into school is due to the reliance on the breakfast and lunch programs that feed 20% of children in America.  While this is a sad statement on what we call one of the most affluent nations in the world, it is a fact of life.  Yes, we need to feed children.  Yes, we need to educate children so they are prepared to enter good jobs.  I just hope we are not willing to sacrifice the children for the sake of opening the economy.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.