up front and a little too human

tonight the raucous weather front is here. the rain is coming down on the bit of remnant snow left behind. the wind is carrying bits and pieces of what has risen from the past. not sure if the waters will reach the bridge deck. it isn't really unusual. and so we have learned to deal with it. 

somehow i don't think we deal or really tolerate humanness vey well. well, it isn't the sort that you hold out front. the clothes we wear, the face we carry, the acts we plot and do behind the scenes. what a fix we are in. because more often than not we just don't seem to have a right way to tackle those difficult issues.

and i guess it begs a question of how do you really contemplate if not actually doing it. you know, starting over. ok a new direction, but with a past.

innovate living and working together and novel ideas in a novel way.

novel ideas, huh.

i like to stand in a stiff wind. to feel the rain pelt against my face. a glance at the sky and either disappear into the grayness or to ride along on the clouds.

a peak of blue can bring a smile and a reminder that there is hope.

the hope of a creator and the courage to face uncertainty and the hard decisions that your (our) times may dictate.

what is it, james said faith and works. and maybe the feather that forest talked about. what is it "light as a feather" jesse talked about. no, not the biblical jesse either. but then again, yes maybe...

i'm listening now.

it's i dreamed a dream. perhaps storms we cannot weather, but yes, storms that will pass by. i suppose we are all dust in the wind. yet, one hopes that copenhagen brings hope. hope that we can work together. i think that real humanness is rising to the real challenge of growing our garden together. with All the Biological World in uniting to make a common future. those that hear this call will understand. it is for those in copenhagen. that they may listen and God may show. show us the path to a common light.

Time for a Nor'easter

This is a blog without a photograph, and thus for me it is an internal blog. The kind you wake up with after a fitful night of sleep and you have been tossing a bit wondering about this and that. You see today was a cold day, with drizzle. The comet's trail so to speak of the Nor'easter off the coast that has matured in the Appalachians and either married the system coming up from the southeast or spawned something altogether new. And behind her, we bundle up and look to the sky and shiver a bit. But you know a day like today makes you feel good to be alive. And I guess it tends to make me contemplate. We were riding to my son's soccer game. I happened to interrupt a great conversation about many things to comment that in an odd way the United States is at a crossroads. We are like a child that hasn't quite grown up yet is poised to make choice(s). One can glance across the globe and acknowledge challenges across the board that in one way or another the United States has some connection to, and hint at decision-making to go with it. That's when I returned home and read Bono's opinion piece in the New York Times today. He talked about America and the need, "...the world needs to believe in America again." I think Bono has it right, to a point. You see America is much more than simply the United States of America. A problem with this America, and what my friend and I talked about, is that our educational system (and maybe the rest of us too) still hasn't quite recognized it yet. The yet is that there is a Canada, a Central America and a South America in this America. That there are other languages rather than simply English and other cultures besides our own. It is a very rich world, diverse at that, for which we still tend to hunker down upon in a bit of a fetal way. Don't get me wrong there is a place and time for a Teddy Roosevelt response with a hammer too. But it is the "ideas" part of Bono's take that I feel an affinity for. We need ideas now - strong ones that equally arise from a strong-value driven system. Our connections flow from our country, and return again. Curiously enough I made it to another year today on my day. My eve of today and today were, gratefully so, connections to my past with individuals that I have encountered over a span of life. Those connections simply convey to me that we as a country owe it to ourselves and to others to promote those connections in our homes, in our schools and through our mosaiced heritage in a relatively new country that can make a difference - and that must.

Roaring Plains West Wilderness Area

One of the Monongahela National Forest's newly designated wilderness areas, over 6,000 acres of high elevation (3,000 feet+) Appalachian forest set in northeastern West Virginia. A beautiful landscape especially photogenic in the fall (photographs courtesy of David Ede)...

The Station Fire



A Sharp Edge

The week has been beautiful, but alas today’s clouds foretell a bit of a change (see photo). I did hear and see a red tail hawk, listen to the crows on chase, and momentarily watch a flicker feed. I was working on the road this morning patching holes here and there. I miss the feel of being outside and it felt so good to be outside. My daily work regimen is normally on the computer exploring geographic data bits and images using Environmental System Research Institute’s ArcGIS software. I do like and follow technology closely albeit at times I wonder how our biological heritage will mix with mechanical makings. Speaking of mechanical makings though, yesterday a friend called and we somehow got on the subject of American-made products and specifically talked of two products from Bradford, Pennsylvania – Zippo lighters and Case knives. I’ve never really owned a Zippo lighter per se, but like a lot of people I’m sure I’ve used them many a time when in need of fire. They were always dependable. As for Case knives that is a different story. I have owned many a Case pocket knife and still do. The story behind the story is that my Father schooled me in the use of knives at a young age starting with Mumblety-peg ( and no I never stuck my foot with a knife although I came close). I’m not real certain of why my Father loved knives, but I’m sure it related to hunting. Interestingly he made sure that I knew how to use (and sharpen) a pocket knife, a two-bladed Case knife, that I would use to field-dress a deer (and other four-legged critters). He always said that you did not need a bowie knife to do the job just a small pocket knife with a blade that could shave the hair on your hand. Although I could handle a knife I never really was the ultimate outdoorsman, but let’s just say I never was at odds with the woods either. And I suppose that why I’ve made it back around to the reason for writing this post. You see we have more than a few deer out our front door now. They are a pretty species that I never tire of watching, but just as humans are impacting the planet, so too are the whitetail deer populations. Therein lays one chapter in a long story about our natural systems being just a bit out of sync – they’ve lost their natural integrity. Now I do not really believe that we can return to the old days, old ways, and old landscapes. But I do feel that there are ecologists and geographers and other natural resource professionals out there that have valid and critical views on the state of the world.
My parochial view for this relatively minor part of the world is that ideally we may need at some point to delineate relatively naturally occurring ecosystems that we can target for insisting that natural populations, to the extent possible, be safeguarded and even re-introduced if necessary, to return to some semblance of a functioning ecosystem. Hunting and fishing, albeit at times their own worst enemy, still remain as viable tools in a toolbox of land management options within that ecological matrix.


Land Ethic
The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.

This sounds simple: do we not already sing our love for and obligation to the land of the free and the home of the brave? Yes, but just what and whom do we love? Certainly not the soil, which we are sending helter-skelter downriver. Certainly not the waters, which we assume have no function except to turn turbines, float barges, and carry off sewage. Certainly not the plants, of which we exterminate whole communities without batting an eye. Certainly not the animals, of which we have already extirpated many of the largest and most beautiful species. A land ethic of course cannot prevent the alteration, management, and use of these 'resources,' but it does affirm their right to continued existence, and, at least in spots, their continued existence in a natural state.

Leopold, Aldo: A Sand County Almanac, and Sketches Here and There, 1948, Oxford University Press, New York, 1987, pg. 204.

For the Glory

Mountaineer Trails

A Weather Glance

The tropics are becoming active as the summer winds down and early fall approaches. Bill, Ana, and Claudette are in the news. From my own front porch I photograph a distant thundercloud to the east and include both my photo and a later NWS radar image of the area in this post.
Fortunately, in terms of severe storms I have never experienced direct hits by either tornadoes or hurricanes. I have come close though. I was in Vickburg, Mississippi helping out in the aftermath of Katrina in 2005 when, for short period of time, a Category 5 Rita was taking aim at Louisiana. I was wondering what I would do as it was taking aim. For a brief instant I considered standing my ground and seeking providential help but only for an instant... Rita turned a bit toward the west and weakened (although there was till major damage). For those who have not seen the destruction from a storm surge, or the path of a severe tornado, suffice to say that it is a very humbling experience. I have quite a few photographs and maps from my work there, but I will save that for another day. I consider global change, including climate change, to be a critical challenge for humanity. The long and short of it is that we must be as a willow, not breaking, bending in the wind and understanding that there is an ecological language that we must speak, and fluently, to evolve for the future.

Off in the Distance

Mind Mapping Light

The front porch is a nice spot to settle in to the day. This morning's light was especially comfortable on this August 9th, 2009 (see photograph). The Sabbath. A day to contemplate and sense what is around you. The geese rise to the air in the distance honking all the way and filling our valley with their unique sound. I watched as they communicated their timeless act of gathering into the air. Further off though in our very human lens on the world there are stories and photographs of challenge and tragedies across the world. A Sabbath there too, but in a reflection of biological play of ebbs and flows of time there is the unsettling wonder of it all. Disconcerting in the providential plot of things and how they have been, and of now, and of what they will be.

Yesterday I picked up an old article by Bill Benson that he had written in the computer publication, Byte. This was way back when (1985) and as a consequence of what the author, Jerry Pournelle, had written about the Macintosh at that time. Bill essentially said that visual thinking goes hand in hand with creativity. He cited Albert Einstein and said that Albert thought in images, "...not words or even mathematical symbols Albert aside, there probably is some merit in looking at how we 'interact' with what is around us.
The ability of our children to perceive, or maybe discern, what is around us relates to what each of us teach our children, but especially in how our educational system approaches and implements the act of conveying what each of our teachers know to their students. Probably the art of teaching is a non-linear process albeit knowledge surely is, but there are tools out there that might facilitate this. Again, Bill Benson mentions this in his article, but I especially appreciate mind mapping. I like it because I can take my words and really translate them into images. I could go on about this, but I will leave it there. There are a number of tools out there, for business, but also for teachers. Recommended.

Finally, back to where I started out this post is that looking at the morning light is the start of perceiving what is in that light. And yes, perhaps your chair is not quite so comfortable as my front porch, but my first 18 or so years were spent in and around the city too so I know, you can find greenscapes just about wherever you look no matter where you are. Challenging the world can begin with recognizing that there is a story to tell closer than you think.

Footnote: The best, and I mean the best, computer magazine ever was Byte. Hats off to Tom, Jerry and many others. For those who were fans, and I was one, this publication approached legendary levels. I wish it would return...Ojala.

The Traveler

My Favorite Modeller

"Which of the wanderers through these different mazes will step forward at the call for the real Herbert Simon? All of them; for the "real" self is an illusion. We live each hour in context, different contexts for different hours. To say, truly that we are actors does not make us "unreal" or hypocritical. We act our lives within the mazes in which Nature and society place us." (Simon, 1991)

I've played around quite a bit with a concept called "context moment." The essence of it is that it is a unique state that gives birth to emergent phenomena. Which is that we are all really travelers through space and time and therein is the seedbed for something new. My only question is how different is your context moment in terms of, maybe not speed, but of a something (i.e., metric) that represents you. And how can you/we relate/access/share/save your/our corner of the world.

It is interesting that the reason for this little traverse arises from my delving into knowledge management concepts, essentially trying to leverage what each of know, so that our own employers/organizations potentially can tap into the wellspring of baby boomer knowledge for future use (given that most of the baby boomers, including me, will be retiring in the next few years). As it happens I read a couple of articles by Alex and David Bennet pertaining to the "next generation knowledge organization." They have written and are writing quite a bit on the field. Much of which is thought-provoking and characterizes "an environment of rapid change, high complexity and large uncertainty." New technologies play a major role in this mix.

In "Connections: new ways of working in the networked organization," Sproul and Keiesler (1991) discuss a two-level perspective on technology involving efficiency and social systems. Sproul and Kiesler argue that there are second-level effects (as opposed to looking at first-level effects) that correlate with "new uses of technology, new ways of working and living, new skills, and new ways of thinking." The authors suggest that these changes are deviation-amplifying effects. The consequence of these small changes or effects is-akin to the butterfly effect or perhaps tipping point-a new permanent state.

Herbert A. Simon said, "In describing my life. I have situated it in a labyrinth of paths that branch, in a castle of innumerable rooms. The life is in moving through that garden or castle, experiencing surprises along the path you follow, wondering (but not too solemnly) where the other paths would have led; a hueristic search for the solution of an ill-structured problem. If there are goals, they do not so much guide the search as emerge from it. It needs no summing up beyond the living of it."

Herbert is "my favorite modeller." Yet, pending changes, I leave my model behind. This is not so much by choice but as a consequence of where 'we' are. Knowledge, connections and relationships, in virtual space and time, will re-create our world and our place in it-essentially delegating the task of discerning reality.

Related references:
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Technological singularity

Going Home

An image that captures my fancy was the scene with Danny Glover in "Angels in the Outfield" where Danny decides to play ball with the neighborhood kids. One of the boys hits a long ball with another kid on first. Danny yells at the kid on first to "go home, go home." The young boy does just that running towards the only home that he knows. I love that scene. Innocence and baseball, really innocence and sports (akin to life I suppose) are a unique blend of acting out one's reality - a funny mix of hope, dreams, and the practical side of life taught to you before you even realized what was happening. Of course, each of us hangs on to our own take on reality - which at times may be a bit at odds from what society is expecting or looking for. So be it. I'm writing this short piece though, following my short video, to say that I'd be hard-pressed not to believe that all sports are mental and physical challenges and worthy ones at that. Sports challenges test one's ability in a myriad of situations. Pretty obvious thoughts I suppose. But what is more interesting is that the field flow of soccer is a bit different than an individual's disciplined quest for excellence in swimming or to the mental sophistry of golf. Tom Watson served us well at 59 to challenge the field in Scotland at The Open, in more ways than one. And tackle football always impressed me in childhood because I always had to dredge up some courage to play the game. But how does it really square with who we are later in life. Or does it really matter. Actually, I think what really matters is to remember that sports is a tool that can serve us well to develop future leaders. Ricky Henderson, during a Baseball Hall of Fame interview the other day, spoke nostalgically about the love of the game that drove players fifty and sixty years ago to be the best that they could be. Ricky misses that overt reflection of love for the game today. As we all know there seems to be more of a drive to excel at the game using any method at hand. Sure, the profit motive is alive and well in sports just about as well as in Wall Street. But maybe we aren't keeping score the right way. And what about those future leaders that we may need in the years ahead. I mentioned in an earlier post that we need to be geographically literate. Well, I'm adding physical fitness in the context of working to better oneself and in concert with those around you. What I am really looking for is the right fabric to make a sustainable societal/global quilt. That right fabric is akin to using Howard Gardner's multiple intelligiences to come up with the means by which we educate our children to be better leaders, not that we all can be leaders, but that we all can better serve each other...

Playing Life

Canadian Take

This photo was shot way back when as we canoed Algonquin Provincial Park in Canada. It is a beautiful area and well worth your time to visit. But it is the "Canadian take" of mine that has always mystified me. We have traveled a fair amount in Canada, not the least of which is because at one time we lived right on the International boundary with Canada. We could essentially see Canadian land, across from Rainy Lake, right from the house. Canada, amazingly enough, is in the main entirely north of Minnesota. Geographically, that uniqueness is maybe the reason Canadians do take their portable TV on camping trips to watch hockey night. Then again, Minnesotans were like that too except they would be at the high school rink on Saturday night instead. But I just returned from Toronto to see the "Dead Sea Scrolls" at the Royal Ontario Musuem and there is a bit more up north. Go figure. Canadians are into politics big-time, try CBC, if you are curious. And having the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit they are even pushing the envelope a bit. But having visited a variety of provinces from east to west and spoken to quite the mix of Canadians I'd say I just can't sterotype them. And you know that is what is so nice about feeling the wind on a Canadian lake with a loon yodelling in the background - it is in having that special encounter with the land and people that settle in your memoryall...

Other Cultures

I've often wondered about others. In your town, from another town, or simply a face in the news. While I was in the Peace Corps some 30 years ago I took this photograph of one of our crew as we sweated on a mountainside planting seedlings near Salama, Guatemala. He has a proud face with a gentle smile. I've lost his name to time, but I remember the essence of him, his home and his family. I'm sure that he did not have the easiest of lives, but you would have never have known it. He, along with his co-workers, worked over the Gringo, Don Samuel, real well. We had a great time. I was part of a Peace Corps-Smithsonian-CARE conservation program which supported Peace Corps Volunteers across the country as they set up small tree nurseries with their Guatemalan counterparts over a diverse set of landscapes - from tropical to desert. I will never forget the times that I had there. And his was a face that I will not forget either, and therein prompts my message. Our lives are too short to let opportunities slip by at home or abroad to learn that those from over there - in other towns, other places and other cultures - often times are not unlike ourselves with many of the same worries, same joys, and same prayers.

Weather Anomalies

The other night I happened to watch a show on the History Channel about the Bermuda Triangle. Like many others I have always been fascinated by the Triangle, but pretty much agree with scientists and their theories that the conditions in the Triangle are fostered by the Gulf Stream, currents, and air/water temperatures - ingredients that conjure up weather anomalies. Anomalies is a catch all term at times for just about anything that does not really fit the bell-shaped curve of a normal distribution. Well, I encountered an anomaly on January 2, 2006. The photograph that you see here was taken on January 2, 2006 - late in the day. What was remarkable about that day and the fog is that there were thunderstorms off and on all day. Thunderstorms that seemed to almost make that fog come alive with electricity (or maybe with ionized particles). I surely do not know enough or very much at all about atmospheric chemistry, but that was an anomaly that I think that I recognized. It just happened too that that day there was a mine disaster in a nearby community - a tragic mine disaster that probably was caused by an electric charge. A second weather anomaly, that I have no photographs of, but which left an indelible mark was the July 4th, 1999 blowdown in northeastern Minnesota. It just happened that we were part of the crowd that weekend attending concerts at Bayfront Park in Duluth with Bob Dylan and Paul Simon the first night and then America and other performers the second night. The weather that weekend was memorable. For those who do not know there was a blowdown that weekend, of over 400,000 acres of Forest. We were fortunate that we were not in the blowdown itself, but I do remember the weather in Duluth that weekend. It was electric and it was an anomaly. I'm sure many of you have experienced similar weather events. I suppose that is why a lot of us do watch the Weather Channel so much.

Rockin at Muleshole

Cabin in the Pines

Driving home from church and town today, I came upon a young raccoon on the side of the road. Another family had stopped before me and were just getting out to see the furry, masked animal. It looked like he/she had been hurt. I made sure to mention to the young man not to touch the young raccoon for fear of him getting bit - just in case that the raccoon had rabies. I'm not sure whether he listened or not as I got back in my car and drove off. It did though bring back memories of long ago when my family came upon a dead raccoon at the beginning of our street in Pittsburgh (in Lincoln Place). My father said that he thought it was a female and a Mother at that (you could tell the Mom had been nursing young ones). He suggested to my brother and I that the young ones were probably nearby. Well, that was all you needed to tell a twelve year old or so and his young seven year old brother. We hustled back and found two young raccoons. I couldn't believe it. My father, who had spent a lot of time in the woods, let us keep "Nipper and Snipper" for a time. We had a great time with them too. But as they got bigger (and my father even built a really neat cage for them) the day came when my Father said it was time to leave them go. We ended up giving them to our Uncle and Aunt who owned a sporting goods store in East McKeesport. I don't really remember the details because a lot of water has gone over the dam since then, but those long ago memories brought back our 'Cabin in the Pines.' The Cabin my father and his friends built back in the early 40s before they went off to war. There were raccoons and deer and trout and stars at that Cabin. It was a summer mystical place. With fires and hot dogs and a creek. We were very lucky. You see those interactions with Mother Nature left a bit of a footprint on us. I'm not sure that many of my friends back then had the same opportunity although we were able to have some of the neighborhood kids enjoy our Cabin too. What I really wanted to say though is, after seeing that young raccoon and the boy together today, is that those interactions between Mother Nature and children are critical. Our educational system isn't worth the foundation it is built on if we do not place any importance on our children entering and understanding the biological world (i.e., the geographic world). I should mention that my Father passed away in that beautiful little Cabin forty years ago this fall. I'm sure that Ben's last statement was his last calling - to himself and each of us.

A Timeless Way

How do we pattern our language to capture who we are. Geometric nuances that take our biological fingerprints and softly interlace them across the landscape using natural processes. It is time to balance our lives. The historical context for where we have been will prompt our discovery of where we shall be.

A relatively small book, "A Pattern Language," yet there are design seeds that tell a story and yet may tell the tale.