State park trail entry point.

Journey Home

Tales from the pilgrimage.

Paul Deaton

  • Reading Naomi Klein

    Unlike the climate crisis story spoon fed to us in decreasing numbers of corporate media stories, in social media memes, and in fleeting conversations at community gatherings, in This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate, author Naomi Klein said there is a nascent, global movement preparing to take climate action. “The climate movement has yet… Read more

  • Working to Write

    I work to write. It became clear at CRST Logistics I couldn’t combine writing with a career the way William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, and every college teacher who took ink to paper did. I transitioned to being a purveyor of writing and speaking. It has been tough to consistently secure enough income to support… Read more

  • Five Things About Iowa City

    By design, we built our home not in, but close to Iowa City when we moved back to Iowa from Indiana. The intention was to be within commuting distance of jobs in Iowa City, Cedar Rapids and the Quad Cities. Over the years I’ve worked in all three, so the idea has been validated. Iowa… Read more

  • Getting Started on Local Food

    The local food movement is a growing group of individual operators struggling to make a living and an impact in a turbulent world. It is a nascent system directly tied to our consumer culture, dependent upon disposable income and open mindedness in meeting humankind’s most basic need. I spent six years in our local food… Read more

  • Hillary Post-Jefferson Jackson

    Beginning with the first debate on Oct. 13, it has been a fast and wild ride for Democrats. Hillary Clinton held her lead in the polls, and Bernie Sanders appears to have reached a ceiling of support. Vice president Joe Biden won’t enter the race for president. Webb and Chafee bowed out. The Benghazi hearing… Read more

  • On Not Being Vachel Lindsay

    On June 23, 2009 I made my last business trip in a career with many of them. Arriving in Chicago on the corporate aircraft, we drove to the Loop to explain the account transition precipitated by my retirement to our largest customer. The meeting took place at their corporate office in the Wrigley Building. We… Read more

  • Iowa Caucus Notes

    Going into what is arguably the biggest political event of the year for Iowa Democrats — the Jefferson Jackson dinner on Saturday — the Feb 2 caucus is coming into focus. Despite a field of six plus Joe Biden, the contest has never been about more than two candidates, front runner Hillary Clinton and Vermont… Read more

  • Walmart, Work and Value

    The consensus in social media was Walmart’s substantial stock decline on Wednesday – in advance of lower earnings projections – couldn’t have happened to a better group of jerks. The jerks are the five individuals and groups who together own half of outstanding Walmart stock – the Walton family. When people talk about re-distributing wealth,… Read more

  • Frost Forecast and Harvest Soup

    The garden season officially ended today with gleaning that filled eight crates with tomatoes, apples, celery, Swiss chard, kale and hot and bell peppers. I delivered a second 200-pound load of apples to the CSA for shareholders and the food pantry. While there, I picked up some potatoes, garlic, lettuce, a large squash, sweet potatoes… Read more

  • The Senator and the Sierra Club

    The exchange between U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and Sierra Club president Aaron Mair during an Oct. 6 Senate judiciary subcommittee hearing was a brief flash in the news cycle. Was it also a debate about climate change? The subject was to have been the impact of federal regulations on minority communities. The junior senator from… Read more