Novelist | Singer
(Written in August, 2018) Today was annual elderberry picking day, so I took a day off expressly for this purpose. Why so immediate a need? Because the berries are ripe, and I have to beat the birds to a delectable food source. The dental assistant said, “What? Elderberries?” when I offered my post dental appointment…
They brought her to the dispensary in the bed of a white pickup. A herd of men accompanied her to the door, then left her to navigate the last steps to the platform. She could’ve been anywhere between 30 and 50 – it was impossible to tell. But knowing this was her fifteen child forced…
“Ben, I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.” “Yes sir.” “Are you listening?” “Yes I am.” “Plastics.” “Exactly how do you mean?” “There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?” “Yes sir.” Everyone past a certain age remembers that scene from The Graduate, released…
Today, amid the busyness that is a normal job in a normal life, I escaped from my head long enough to remind myself how really good life is, and how we are given guardians and f riends when we most need them. It is January, and the time of year that I most think of…
My dear friend Jeni Mitchell had this posted on Facebook a while back, and I just discovered it hiding in my files. All great words of wisdom that she certainly lives by. Thank you for this Jeni! Live beneath your means. Return everything you borrow. Stop blaming other people. Admit it when you make a…
Here we are at Winter’s Door once again. Little surprises like an extreme temperature plunge are certainties. The earth itself has cooled, having slowly given up its summer radiant heat through long chilly nights. The ocean surrounding our Gloucester island home is chilling as well, though it’s still acting as a blanket to insulate us…
I was recently in the Bahamas to escape at least part of the winter. I don’t mind winter, just the length of it, so even a bit of away is a bonus. We sail and fish, and I spend a great deal of time just sitting and looking and pondering the amazing world in which…
Upon our return from the winter get-away, what a greeting I discovered in our mail pile. An a bubble-wrapped copy of “Garamba – Conservation in Peace & War,” a coffee-table book from Dr. Kes Hillman-Smith, the woman who acted as my “boss?” “advisor?” when I was doing my Master’s field work in Zaire in ’93…
When I checked the last blog I wrote, the date on the file was two months ago. Good Lord, how could this happen? I’m a writer. It’s not that I haven’t been writing. I’ve been doing LOTS of writing; emails, emails, emails and emails. They do count, don’t they? I’m also sure to make appropriate…
Richard Louv spoke at Brookwood School in Manchester-by-the-Sea the other day. His new book Vitamin N follows on the heels of his other two ground-breaking works Last Child in the Woods and The Nature Principle. Last Child was a wake-up call to our nation to recognize the necessity of outdoor creative play for children to…