Richmond Industrial Fire

On Tuesday April 11, 2023, a warehouse stockpiling plastic and batteries burst into flame. By the next day, it was all over the national news outlets. My family was among the 2,000 neighborhood residents displaced for the rest of the week. An enormous column of black smoke was visible as I drove along the western …

It’s time to put out some fires, Bradbury style

A New Yorker cartoon points out that book bans are another form of book burning depicted in Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451.

Things to Do When DoorDash is Dead

It’s 5 pm on Wednesday and I need cash. Even dull gig work pays some of the bills. What do I do in the meantime? Sit down on the couch. Close and reopen the Dasher app, trying to refresh my request to the job gods. I implore, I’ll even accept Burger King! No response. Close and reopen …

Simone Biles Mindfulness Rabbit Hole

Simone Biles, the greatest gymnast of all time got a bad case of the Twisties last week and withdrew from most events at the Tokyo Olympics. In the team press conference right after she announced her plans, she said she needed to focus on her mindfulness. I think she speaks for everyone who survived the …

Lemmings, Penguins, and Walruses Reviewed

My book group has been reading John Green's The Anthropocene Reviewed. Today we discussed the chapter on the opening of the film Penguins of Madagascar. As we were talking, I realized that nature documentaries and the way they are edited for dramatic effect, often at the expense of scientific accuracy, may be the most quintessential …

The ecology of mass shootings

I've been writing lately about connections between anthropocentrism, roadkilled animals, and violence. I've found some interesting material, including this timely piece. In March 2019 after the Christchurch mosque shooting, Rebecca Solnit wrote in an essay for the Guardian: I asked Hoda Baraka, who is both Muslim and 350.org’s global communications director, how it all looked …

Religious Bibliography of William Stafford

I just compiled a bibliography of works by and related to William Stafford regarding religion and spirituality. Whether or not we see William Stafford as a religious poet, it can't be ignored that he wrote a lot about it, and that many readers turn to his work when thinking of religious and spiritual themes. View the …

The Pilgrimage of Just Peace in the Poetry of William Stafford

On 29 October 2015, I was invited to give a talk at the Bethany Theological Seminary Presidential Forum on the theme of pilgrimage. I decided to take the opportunity to discuss Stafford again, but in a way that isn't always thought about. Here are my remarks: William Stafford, twentieth century American poet, was a conscientious …

I Love to Write the Story: How I Became a Writer & a Teacher

In the Christian gospel of Mark, there is a story of Jesus healing a child “possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech” and “throws him to the ground.” This story of Jesus healing a child is, in many ways, my own story. When I was one year old, I had ear infections, …

Don’t be a Writer, Just Write

William Stafford once wrote, “My aim is not to be a writer, but to write” (from the book Sound of the Ax). I’ve thought of myself as a writer for much of my life. The tricky part is how to make writing, actually writing, the first priority of my life. Last week, I went on …

My first solo exhibit “From Within: Photographs 2015-2018”

My first solo photography exhibit of fourteen images is hanging at Manchester University in Northern Indiana. You can see it on the second floor of the Academic Center until January 2019. My artist statement and bio for the show are available here.

Photography Experiments

I’m watching Art Wolfe’s episode of “Tales by Light” on Netflix. I recently saw an online lecture by Wolfe on Creative Live talking about using long exposures to make abstract images. I like his approach to nature photography as fine art. And so I went out and tried his technique. The photo in this post …