122. Disneyland

            This probably sounds corny coming from a middle-aged man, but I really like Disneyland. It’s definitely a nice representation of the good things about America. They do such a nice job of collecting fairy tales, myths and legends from around the world, and they also show American stories and landscapes in their displays and rides. When you go to Disneyland you see signs of it being the happiest place on earth (as they say) and I can certainly deny that claim because it is expensive and crowded, but I won’t. (Making money is also and American thing, isn't it?) I think Americans are generally more willing to hang on to our nickels and dimes; I also think we like our space. But for the sake of a little fun and escape we will gladly relinquish a little space if our compatriots are also smiling, and forking out too much money for a churro or a meal. Because of the willingness to suspend our daily tension it really does rival some of the happiest places on earth.

            I was there just a few weeks ago on Friday, December 27, 2019 and it met capacity for crowds so they actually had to turn people away at the gates. Even with that there were people willing to wait three hours in line for popular rides. My family and I chose to use a disability pass so we didn’t wait too long in line, but we didn’t do as many rides either because those passes are limited. Still, observing people, shopping for souvenirs, and running into people from the Northwest that we encountered (knowing them because of the clothing they wore) made for an enjoyable day. We also lived high off the hog for lunch and dinner eating great traditional foods like burgers, fried chicken, pot roast and good old Christmas cakes.

            In Disneyland you can ride roller coasters, go to a boutique and be transformed into a prince or princess, build your own droids, stroll through European fairy tale towns, bobsled the Matterhorn and get your pictures taken with superheroes or Goofy. You can ride a steam boat and visit New Orleans and a haunted mansion. It’s just a fun place to see the world all in a few blocks. While it’s just a complete fantasyland, it’s particular to the American dream as well as the American fantasy. You can’t have any of that without a little nightmare, so maybe price it a little high (help Disney’s American dream) and cram it full. It’s still a very happy place.

Winter Running Confession

            I have a confession to make. I have not run at all this week and I have decided I probably won’t go more than a couple of times. I do not like to run in the dark, even with a headlamp. In the depths of winter it is dark until I go to work and by the time I get finished it is dark again. I only have 25 minutes for lunch so I use that time to prepare and eat. And let’s face it: my days at work are manic. I teach over one hundred students, coach the Knowledge Bowl kids in winter and a zillion other things get piled on me because I am the senior member of staff here. The precious daylight hours are taken away by my job.

            This confession isn’t something I feel compelled to do out of a sense of guilt or penitence. I feel perfectly fine about having a season in the year where I slow down a bit. This year I even planned for it and fully embrace it. I did the same thing in December and now that it’s January, we’ve had a thaw, and the days are getting longer, I am setting running goals for myself. I spent the holidays just getting fat and happy and I truly believe in taking a complete break from running for a week or two. It used to be that that break coincided with a big race or the end of the cross-country season. I’ve almost always skimped on running at this time of year with great guilt. I’ve hated the forced runs with headlamps on icy roads or cold rain in my face.  I’ve hated nursing rolled ankles from going into the ditch to get out of the way of traffic. So why do it? This is the time of year to take my running break. This is the time of year I should stay off the scales. But I have still been weighing myself and I haven’t gained any. I might not be losing those pounds I wanted to lose, but I’m not gaining more.

            I have to say that it’s really nice to just stop worrying about getting a run in the dark completed. It’s really nice to just embrace the holiday season. During the Christmas break I was able to run in the middle of the day and that was nice. I have also taken advantage of the snow and gone cross country skiing. So what’s the big deal about taking a couple weeks off? What’s wrong with giving up a run for friends and a holiday party? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. So why do we runners put ourselves through such guilt trips at this time of year? Maybe it’s a good time to plan on not running at all if everything is icy or soggy and dark. If you live where winter preempts your regularly scheduled programing, take it easy and give yourself permission to just shovel snow.

122. 14 Hands Winery

            I enjoy having a glass of wine every night before going to bed and sometimes with dinner. I had a minor heart attack about ten years ago and a single bypass surgery nine years ago, so having that daily glass of red wine has been approved by my doctors. I have also been living in the Pacific Northwest all of my life (with breaks for teaching and when my dad was in the military) and I have watched a little grape juice vineyard here and there turn into a respected wine industry over the past forty years. So, needless to say, I am a fan of some of the local wineries. One of those wineries that is worth a visit is the 14 Hands winery in Prosser, Washington.

            It’s a relaxing winery to go and taste a few varieties of wine. Right up against the Horse Heaven Hills just out of Prosser, the 14 Hands winery displays the winery logo in a parade of metal horses of a rust color. When you go inside there is a warm comforting atmosphere with plenty of windows to view the desert and the nearby roads. There are leather couches with coffee tables and someone will come to you with the wines that you want to taste. There is, of course, a bar that has a display of all the wines behind it and a nearby display of wine and winery trinkets for purchase. And if you don’t know much about wine or how it’s made you can ask and get an informative talk on the varieties of grapes, the wine blends, etc. It’s just a nice place to relax and while away an hour or so and come away with a nice bottle or two of wine.

            One of my favorite 14 Hands wines is the Red Blend. It’s a smooth tasting red that I’m sure would meet the approval of my cardiologist. It’s very drinkable and probably has notes of raspberries or some other pretentious flavor that is supposed to be good in a wine but that I am not well versed enough to explain in the language of a sommelier, nor do I necessarily care to be. It’s just a nice wine to sip with a meal or have with a friend. So, if you ever get to Prosser, stop in at this winery and taste a few wines. If getting to Prosser is unlikely, then go to your nearest store where you can get a bottle of good wine and try a 14 Hands. Or just get a bottle of whatever wine you enjoy.

121. Bourbon

I’m not much of a drinker. Generally, the daily glass of red wine for my health and a beer every now and then is about it. But of course there are occasions where I’ll have a drink with a friend or slip a little Bourbon into my sweet potato recipe or my pecan pie. And why not take a sip? So, yes, I have a fifth of Kentucky Bourbon in my pantry. And, like the old days, I will add some honey and lemon and water and make a toddy with Bourbon if I’ve got a cold in the winter. Of course it can be used for “medicinal purposes.”  And I know that old wink, wink that goes along with that “medicinal” phrase, but the truth of the matter is that it works. I have never visited a Bourbon distillery, but I know where my Bourbon comes from and I know it is from my own country. While I might not be swilling the Bourbon, nor do I think anyone should, I do take pride in it being part of my American heritage and the medicine for my sore throat and the flavoring in my sweet potatoes and my pecan pie. I see no reason to not be proud of a sip of good old Kentucky Bourbon every once in awhile.

120. Coors Brewery

            I like beer. I never liked it when I was younger because all the American beers were things like Budweiser, Hamms, Rainier and Coors—lagers and pilsners or lighter German style beers. This, along with my rather tea totaling ideology, lead me away from being a drinker at all. Then in my twenties I went abroad to England to study at Oxford. There was no shadow of Prohibition there and the pub culture is very inviting and not the typical dark and sleazy bar culture that I found to be prevalent in 1980’s America. So, I took to it and began to enjoy the darker British ales.

            Upon my return to the US I found, in my native Northwest, a new micro-brewery culture that encouraged me because I found British style ales. That’s still my favorite beer and now those beers are pretty much available at any grocery or convenience store. That change has been subtle and gradual over the last forty years.

            So having said all that about my tastes in beer, what I’m about to say might seem odd. One of my favorite breweries to visit is the Coors brewery in Golden, Colorado. No, I’m not a fan of Coors Banquet Beer but I do enjoy getting a tour and some free samples. They also brew other beers like Blue Moon so I’ve found that at the Coors brewery I am still able to find a beer to my taste. And, let’s face it, with a few free eight-ounce samples I’m going to find a beer I like. Since I haven’t been to Golden for a couple of years I can’t recall just which beer I liked. And since I’m writing this in January and I was there in July I might not really care for that favorite I chose then. That’s the great thing about American beer culture these days. It is continuing to offer new varieties. And these big breweries like Coors Miller Brewing are keeping up with that. Who would think that my dislike for pilsners and lagers would leave me to love that plant in Golden, Colorado? Let’s face it. As prudish as we Americans can get, we are a creative collective of people and we work to overcome our faults like the hard core crackdown on alcohol that we made a century ago. We also might struggle with finding middle ground, but if you just taste the variety and creativity of American life you might find pleasure even in a macro-brewery.

119. Denver

             An American city that I really love is Denver, Colorado. I’m not a big city fan but this place just feels like home. Everyone thinks that the mile-high city must be in the mountains, but it’s not.  It’s on the Great Plains right where they meet the Rockies. It’s a city that seems to reflect the entire Rocky Mountain region of the country with its proximity to the mountains, the plains and its high elevation. It’s also the biggest city in the Rocky Mountain region and that, of course, sounds awkward because city and Rocky Mountains don’t match. But, like I said, it isn’t really in the mountains it’s just near them. And, of course, the proximity of Denver to the mountains means the people are the outdoorsy type. You find the cowboy types as you would expect of the high plains and the mountaineering types such as hikers, climbers, and skiers as you would also expect of the mountains.
             If you don’t want to catch the Broncos or be in the city there are lots of things nearby that are worth taking time to see. Buffalo Bill Cody is buried in the mountains nearby, so if you’re a western history buff that’s a nice little pilgrimage to honor a past that has led to the current state of the west in all its aspects. Going south to Colorado Springs to see the Air Force Academy is well worth the trip, though driving that interstate highway might lead you to believe you’ve been transported to Southern California. Red Rocks Amphitheater is also close by and if you hit it right you might catch a great concert there. If you like beer at all you should definitely tour the Coors Brewery in nearby Golden. A drive north to Boulder will get you to the University of Colorado where you might catch a Pac 12 game. The Leanin’ Tree card company is also in Boulder if you like glimpses of great western art. And the Celestial Seasonings Tea company is also there. The facility tour of that place is worth the visit all by itself.
            But the best thing about Denver to me is just the feel. For me it feels comfortable, like I’m at home in spite of the fact that it is urban and nothing like my rural home. It is the shared history, accent and friendly western feel of the people. Denver is a comfortable big city for me and a great American place that gives me a sense of pride.

118. American Athletics

            I have never considered myself to be very athletic but I have always enjoyed the benefits of sporting activities in the United States. In this country we take our athletic endeavors pretty seriously and we start training our children the benefit of sport early on. Every American knows the rudimentary skills of basketball and baseball and football. We instruct our children at a very young age how to hold a bat and to keep an eye on the ball so that they can know when to swing and hit the ball. We provide mascots for every school around which we rally and have a name so that we know that the kids who go to Potlatch Schools are called the Loggers and therefore the Loggers are the cross country team, the baseball team, etc. from Potlatch and therefore the people from that town will naturally support the children from that town or that school in that city. Go Loggers! This support continues well into adulthood so that our professional athletes can receive the same support from their cities or regions. Everyone knows that the Seahawks 12^th man for their 11-man football team is its fans in the Northwest. The six New England states support the Patriots in Boston. This is both our training in sports and athleticism and our tribalism. We start at a very early age and we continue throughout our lives to identify with both our athletic abilities (or lack thereof) and our region.

            So while I might not consider myself that athletically inclined, though I consider myself far more fit than the average Joe, I realize, after having lived abroad, that as an American I am very well trained in sports and very inclined to support both my town, my region and my country in its athletic endeavors. I don’t know if it was intended to instill pride in my country, but sports are an American factor that unite us in a common sense of purpose and a reason to rally around our sense of nationhood that goes far beyond any sense of simple tribalism but to a sense of unity. We, the people, in order to form a more perfect union will play ball.  Go Loggers! Go Hawks! USA! USA! Who knew that the ideals of equality for all could come from the support of competition? I don’t think it was conscious, it was e pluribus unum.

117. American Paradox

            Right now, a good portion of the political spectrum in America wants to focus on all of our disparate approaches to what being an American is. That is the nature of seeking political office, politicians need to distinguish themselves from one another. The media would also have us believe that we, as a country, are also deeply divided because we strongly disagree with each other on how to approach a variety of issues. But I think that we are not divided as much as we’re led to believe. I still believe we are united in the ideals of inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Of course, how we approach those ideals can be very different because we are still individual human beings who come from very different backgrounds and circumstances. Perhaps we do spend too much time identifying the differences we have and we do paint those in darker tones. Just like all of the world we have human flaws, but unlike the rest of the world we try to overcome those flaws. We find them unacceptable: gun violence is wrong, social disparity is wrong, etc., etc. Our fight is less with each other and more with ourselves and how we can solve these problems. I don’t see the need to despair because we disagree. I have a profound love for the American people and our interconnectedness in identifying problems and trying to solve them. This is the great American paradox that we are in, but I love the people who work to make a more perfect union. I love Americans.

Sonnet to Justice

The music of the violin played a

Majestic purple throughout the room so

That I imagined a magistrate’s robes

Wisely containing the violence of

Depths known only within the viola.

My contention was that without the flow

Of her prevention of the witchcraft’s slow

Inviolate imagination, a

Witan’s instigation would have left me

Blue—worse, red—with such a violation.

That now could blend in this purple magic

That ears could not contain as a beauty.

Paradoxically such a station

Of justice that music’s muse is so tricked.

116. American Pride

           I really love how Americans of all stripes are proud of our country and our nationality. No matter our political persuasion, Americans are always happy to fly the flag, wear blatantly American apparel and shout USA at international sporting events. While to others it may come off as American arrogance, in truth it is just pride. We love our country. We love the variety of our space from coast to coast. We love that every ethnic group in the world is represented in our country. We love e pluribus unum. And pretty much everyone of us can replace the we in those previous sentences with I and be completely satisfied.
            I have been to various places in the world and witnessed plenty of other countries that have their own national pride, but American pride is different because it encompasses all of those other national prides. We are proud of our female Olympic athletes who fence in their hijabs. We love Neapolitan pizza as we view the eruption of Old Faithful. We love Route 66, Elvis Presley and Jimmy Hendrix. We just love everything about our country. I love that.

115. Clean Air

           

Another thing about being an American and living in this country that I am thankful for is our clean air. I know that there are times when that is not true. I live in the Inland Northwest where winter inversions that last too long can stagnate the air in the intermountain valleys from car exhaust and all the various forms of burning that people use for heat. Another aspect of living out west that has always affected air quality is wildfires that occur naturally from our dry climate and the intense summer heat.

            But in spite of those times when things get out of control, Americans generally work to keep our air clean. Yes, there are times we can do better but we try to keep the air as free of pollutants as we can. I remember how filthy the air was in Los Angeles in the 1970’s like a thick burning yellow fog but now you can go there and your eyes don’t sting from the smoggy air. In fact, I was just in LA a couple of weeks ago and there was no haze in the air at all. Cities and states across our country have worked hard to keep the air clean often surpassing the Clean Air Act passed in the 1970’s. While I’m thankful for that, I also know we need to employ our American drive and ingenuity to better our carbon imprint because climate change is real and the global temperature rise is because we haven’t been doing a good enough job of keeping the air clean. Again, we need to set the example just as we have in the past instead of dragging our feet and pretending that climate change is just a fairy story.

They are patterned upon the grass

They are patterned upon the grass,

frozen into a tableau

of muted greens, yellows and hints of red.

The greens are more of a militant camouflage—

except they are what the camo hopes to imitate—

the reds are more that of a brownish

dried blood, and the yellows

are phlegmy.

This is the autumn splendor

sprawled upon the ground,

fallen from the trees,

and swirled onto the grass

like the vomit of a drunken party

now frozen onto the green of the grass.

I can’t help but think it must have been

one hell of a party to have so debauched

my beautiful green lawn

into this crusted mess of vomit

that I have to quickly clean

before the potent purity of the ultimate judge,

Old Man Winter, arrives.

Shall I scoop it together into a

moldering mess,

or burn it to let its incense

welcome in the crispness of

Winter’s snow?

Morning brings all of the joy of renewal

Morning brings all of the joy of renewal,

Yet every morning is still a sense of loss.

Nothing can be renewed, revived

Without having lost something.

Each sunrise gave way to the night

That began with a sunset.

Each newborn cry is only the remnant

Of the funeral from the day before.

Yet we go on in oblivion

To what went on before,

Never knowing that there is

Nothing new under the sun.

Yet let the aphorisms flow

For ignorance is bliss indeed

And without it we could never go on

Into that good night

That beats like the hearts

Within our chests, repeating its

Cycle of joy and sorrow.

Right now I live within this cycle

Choosing rejoicing over depression.

But perhaps I’ve gotten to where

I’m not really sure what is

The difference, yet I will rage

Against the dying of the light.

114. Free Exchange of Ideas

            

            We live in a country that has no prescription of belief. Here we are, for the most part, allowed to believe what we want. That is incredibly freeing. There is no restriction upon whether I am a person of religious faith, an agnostic or an atheist. But freedom has a price and it can be damning to an entire society, especially if that society has the free exchange of ideas.

            In this country it is problematic at the juncture of our existence that people view facts as just a smorgasbord of ideas from which they can choose. While climate change can easily seem to be something Chicken Little invented to stop me from eating too much meat or clear cutting the nearest forest, the retreat of glaciers has proven to be empirical evidence that the temperatures are rising. Some people would rather play ostrich and bury their head in the sand. Of course most of those who deny climate change also gain some financial benefit from ignoring the facts. These people are too often elected to leadership positions because in our country we have always subscribed to the belief that we live in a land of plenty and that God has blessed those who he has given great sums of money. This belief has often outshone our foundational idea that all are created equal with certain unalienable rights. So it is that greed wars within us over equality.

            My personal belief is that we are created equal, but I can’t lie and say that the blinding lights of greed have never averted my vision.  I know that I live in a country where I am far more privileged than the vast majority of the world. I also know that because I live in  this country what I compare myself to and what I believe is my “right” is a standard far higher than the rest of the world.

            So while I am very thankful to live in a country where the free exchange of ideas is one of our foundational freedoms, I am mindful that my weakness as a human as well as that of my countrymen has damaged our living space. I’m not sure how we human beings can find balance when even the free exchange of ideas can blind us from truth. Nevertheless, I do believe in this basic freedom.

113. Medical Care

            Here in the United States we have excellent medical care. We are the leader of the pack in medical research and our doctors, nurses, health care professionals and medical schools are the best. It’s extremely unfortunate that all of our populace is unable to access this wonderful system where they can be healed in so many of their ailments.

            In this country there is a meritocracy and so much of it is based upon how much money you have. Nowhere is that more painfully obvious than in our excellent healthcare system. In this country if you don’t have a healthy income or a job that gives you a solid medical insurance plan you may as well live in a third world country where there is little to no healthcare.

            Here in Idaho the citizenry voted to cover people whose income was too low to get good or any health insurance. The majority voted to cover those people with Medicare from our state, no strings attached. Our elective representatives felt that was, perhaps, too magnanimous and voted to restrict that Medicare eligibility with a work requirement. On the surface that sounds ok, but the reality is that some people are so stricken by disease that they can’t work very much, if at all. Furthermore, the only way to keep track of who is meeting those requirements will necessitate a red taped bureaucracy that will increase the cost to our citizenry to the extent that it would be cheaper to simply cover the indigent with a guaranteed healthcare system. While the majority of our citizens believe healthcare is a basic human right, our elected officials didn’t get the memo. They apparently don’t believe the sick and poor merit the basic structure of life itself. I believe that sometimes our basic belief in hard work can actually get in the way of taking care of ourselves. This can be seen no better than in the fact that we have one of the best, if not the best, medical care systems in the world yet our august representatives who gained their right to represent us still hold on to a meritocracy that in no way represents what they themselves merit.

            So while I am so thankful for a great health care system in my country, I am also quite dismayed that the most excellent system is, more often than  not, denied to the very people that need it the most: the poor and the sick.