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Monthly Archives: December 2009

Night Visions: Celebrations in Failing Light

Monday, December 21, 2009

There’s not much sunlight in the interior of Alaska these days. Today is the winter solstice, and we have just about three and a half hours of daylight to work with. At this latitude the sun barely climbs above the horizon at mid-day, and it has virtually no warmth. Bit still, it’s reassuring to see [...]

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Reading Wendell Berry

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Reading Wendell Berry’s Citizenship Papers, I see that Berry’s “agrarian argument” might also serve to counter the corporate ethos which has dominated the rhetoric of education reform for several decades, and which is now being carried forward by the Obama administration. The agrarian argument asserts the responsibility everyone has to care for that which everyone [...]

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Home for the Holidays

Saturday, December 12, 2009

There’s a week of school left before Christmas break. It’s tough to keep everyone focused, me included, so I’m going to run with that and indulge a bit of randomness here. Over the course of the 30 years I’ve lived in Alaska, I’ve traveled Outside only a couple of times on holiday vacations, and I’m [...]

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Peace on Earth

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Pacem In Terris: But first We must speak of man’s rights. Man has the right to live. He has the right to bodily integrity and to the means necessary for the proper development of life, particularly food, clothing, shelter, medical care, rest, and, finally, the necessary social services. In consequence, he has the right to [...]

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