State park trail entry point.

Journey Home

Tales from the pilgrimage.

Living in Society

Politics mostly social commentary.

  • Super PAC Hammering Bohannan

    The election will be here before we know it and voters are forming into camps. I encourage anyone eligible to vote to do so. We should participate in our country’s governance because we can. What I can’t abide is the money in politics. It is like the wind yet what you hear is the sound… Read more

  • Michael Franken for Iowa’s Next U.S. Senator

    At the Oct. 6 U.S. Senate debate, each candidate had their points. Incumbent Chuck Grassley explained his daily work schedule when Congress is in session and said he would bring more of the same if reelected. Retired Navy Admiral Michael Franken brought youth, experience, and new ideas. Fans of each candidate had to find something… Read more

  • Book Review – Like a Rolling Stone: A Memoir

    Jann Wenner’s Like A Rolling Stone: A Memoir would more aptly be titled A US Weekly Story of My Life. Its focus on his wealth, his celebrity friends and acquaintances, his wife and his husband, his Gulfstream II, his drug use, his magazine awards, his vacations in rare places, and other detritus of the self-centered… Read more

  • Single-issue Politics are Bad for Iowa

    In Iowa there is more to living in society than any single issue or election. Unlike members of the Congress, we aren’t in a constant state of campaigning. We view those with whom we interact as people first, which makes life more tolerable. There are cultural nuances where we chose to live. Some voters I… Read more

  • What We Value Persists Beyond Elections

    The Nov. 8 midterm election will be here before we know it. What then? What we value persists beyond elections. Voters I know pick their politicians based solely on their position on abortion. Right next to that in importance is same-sex marriage. Other issues are deemed less important or not worthy of consideration. If a… Read more

  • Where Rural and City Meet

    Jack Kerouac’s 1950 book The Town and the City was a white whale of fiction, rejected by most publishers. It was a conventionally-styled book, written before Kerouac developed his own style. It is said to be influenced by Thomas Wolfe. The problem for publishers was the book’s 1,100-page length. Paper and binding costs money and… Read more

  • Grassley and Social Security

    Like many Americans, after my paid work life ended, I planned to use my pension from Social Security as a basic financial support system. So far, so good. I’m not sure I’m finished with paid work. The prospect of earning a couple hundred dollars a month to supplement my pension remains. A disruption in Social… Read more

  • Aging in America – Part VI

    Passing Down History I have conversations about stuff with our child. It is specific stuff. It is my stuff, eventually to be her stuff, at least some of it. For example, a couple hundred vinyl LPs rest on my bookshelf. A lot of good music there, a lot of great memories. The technology is old… Read more

  • Autumn Begins

    Autumn begins at 8:04 p.m. CDT today with the Autumnal Equinox. What I have to share is this photo of wildflowers along the state park trail and the thought spring and summer passed too quickly. Read more

  • Bohannan is a Compassionate, Knowledgeable Leader

    Control of the U.S. House of Representatives could boil down to whether Christina Bohannan beats incumbent Mariannette Miller-Meeks in Iowa’s First Congressional District on Nov. 8. I’m voting for Bohannan. You should, too. I met Bohannan before the pandemic at a coffee shop in Iowa City. My first impression was she was smart and engaged.… Read more