Blog

12 Aug 2011

On Humility

While waiting for the day to warm enough to justify a swim in the Little Spokane River the other day, I read through the latter portion of Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” Amidst the strikingly confident language, what stood out to me was a sense of...

08 Aug 2011

Rearview Review: West Coast

As I turn my handlebars east, it is important that I take some time to reflect upon the Christian responses to climate change I have observed thus far on the trip. This task requires a wide brush whose strokes will undoubtedly pass over details of...

29 Jul 2011

Longview (Sleeping in Seattle)

Greetings from the Emerald City! After 2,059.1 miles, I arrived in Seattle. In honor of that journey, I’ve taken a bit of a Sabbath from the Sabbath. I set aside the calendar, the maps, the emails, and the panniers and tried to remember how to...

16 Jul 2011

Fortune

[caption id="attachment_431" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Crater Lake"][/caption] As I ramble the rich countryside, I feel I am amassing an imperishable fortune. Some might call it a treasure in heaven. If by that they mean an eternal abundance of connection, then I agree. Like all economies, this fortune...

16 Jul 2011

What was it you asked of me

What was it you asked of me When you forged my fragile nerves And delicately dialed the DNA That formed each cellular gear and spring within me When you mended two split persons Into one And watched, felt, and participated As it gained its own beat   What was it you asked As the land...

10 Jul 2011

Mountains

Mountains-- the grandeur of earth’s history bent, boiled, and sliced before eyes whose blink does not register on their geologic clock. Your aesthetic comfort demands physical discomfort and challenge. I am humbled by your presence and strengthened by your company. [caption id="attachment_401" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Mt. Shasta...

07 Jul 2011

Interdependence

When I set off from LA one month and one long state ago, I thought I was setting off to engage in dialogue that entailed me telling others what I thought about Christianity and its relationship to ecology. I thought I was going to teach....

29 Jun 2011

Surprises

No force is more fundamental in travel than the unexpected. Like all great undertakings, travel consists in the delicate knitting of will and chance. Excursions require extensive preparation, constant study--of routes, landscape, maps, resources, etc.-- and determination to see ideas to fruition. Despite this work,...

22 Jun 2011

Bayside

A pulse of cars and bicycles flows and rests on the slanting street beside a North Beach café. The streets are dressed with beatnik memorabilia safely settled behind the same museum glass that holds the lanterns of Chinatown and the Italian flags that lead up...