PUBLIC COMMENT

  We found a 10-day-old parking ticket from Portland the other day. Often the plastic trash we find has baby barnacles. It's been out in the water a long time before we collect it. It's not the only thing and west is not the only direction. We get our water from the Coast Range. "Here's …

THE GRIEF EXCEPTION

First, a confession. I am moody. I sometimes suffer from sadness and depression and anxiety. I have, as an example, seriously worried about overpopulation as if it were my personal problem to solve. I can recall lying awake at night, stewing about starvation and disease and the loss of wild places. I can recall standing …

POETRY + 10

A friend has posted news of a Texas charter middle school that asked students to brainstorm a "balanced" list of the pros and cons of slavery. This is what is meant by "false equivalency". All I can think of on the pro side? I am not on that side. On the con side, slave owners …

PLOVERS, WHITE CLAY, AND SAND

We drove down the coast, past the place where, last summer, we watched the equinox spread waves of chasing light across the ground. It was a privilege for us to get away, we who rarely vacation and have generally been extravagant only about music and books and art. We drove south to have a night …

HOUSE OF ORANGE

  My friend is mourning a cedar tree she passes each day on her way to work. The droopy foliage has abruptly turned orange, an indication the tree has died, perhaps of infection with cedar apple rust or another disease or just due to a peculiarly hot and dry summer. I don’t know the tree …

NOSTALGIA

[CLICK TITLE TO READ MORE] I made my youngest grandchild a birthday cake for her party today. She is two years old. I also made a 2-year-old quilt, something I also did for each of her cousins. Pink is her favorite color. For now. The quilt is cotton with a cotton filling and a pieced backing that …

THE LAST CHANCE

[CLICK TITLE TO READ MORE] Just now, sitting up in bed, I have already updated my progress on Ursula K. Le Guin's last book No Time to Spare. Le Guin ruminates about, among other things such as her cat and overpopulation, the meaning of spare time. Here I have to stop for a moment. Through …

WISE WORDS

"When there's no social pressure behind it, respectful behavior becomes a decision, an individual choice. Americans, even when they pay lip service to Judeo-Christian rules of moral behavior, tend to regard moral behavior as a personal decision, above rules, and often above laws. "This is morally problematic when personal decision is confused with personal opinion. …

GREEN: LOST IN UNDERGROWTH

[CLICK TITLES TO READ THE ENTIRE POSTS]  During my Junior year at the University of Washington, I took Elementary Botany in order to fulfill the distribution requirement for natural sciences. Most of my friends recommended Astronomy or Geology, but I chose plants for that last required class outside my major. Two months later I was ready …

FORGIVE THEM

The New York Times has an article this morning that is misleading about Oregon's public retirement system. Many readers are furious. One wrote: “As a Republican in Oregon I weep regarding the Mary Walsh piece on Oregon´s public sector pensions. It is to a large degree a rehash of periodic attacks by the state´s largest …