I seem to be a rare breed: I’m not an animal lover. I have nothing against animals, but I have no interest in owning a dog or cat, or being a “pet parent,” as a vet told me is now a common phrase. The closest I come to being an animal lover is supporting the […]
It’s Personal
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Keeping the Beat for 50 Years in Humboldt
I felt like a stranger in a strange land when I drove into Rio Dell in March of 1975 to play a six-month job with a country band. Fortuna native Jerry Cooper, a musician I’d played with in San Francisco, had moved back home. He called me in San Francisco and offered six months of guaranteed […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
A Tale of Two Tails
Note: Names have been changed to protect the privacy of embarrassed furballs. On a chilly Sunday morning we noticed a young couple pacing up and down as they scanned for something. “Our cat is missing,” they said. The distraught couple were camping at Clam Beach and their kitty, whom I will call Pretty Boy, went […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
A Small, Good Thing
The work of being a writer often feels both worthless and pointless. Literally worthless in a culture that does not want to pay for it, literally pointless when fewer and fewer people seem to have confidence that anything they read will tell them the truth. Because what is our — my — job, if not […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Through the Electoral Fog
As I write this in the limbo of Election Day, I know I’m not the only person who’s gone through the past week or longer feeling off. This day has loomed on the horizon, growing as it neared, and its shadow seems directly over us at last. I have found it hard to make plans, […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
David, Three Years Out
On recent a sweltering afternoon, I was fortunate enough to get a personal tour of Los Angeles City Hall. Accompanying me was my new intern who had just been released after eight years of incarceration inside juvenile hall, as well as a recently released formerly incarcerated individual working at Homeboy Industries and an employee with […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
My Juneteenth Revelation of Embracing Culture in Humboldt
My great-great-granny Momma Martha, my great-granny Madea and my granny Jonnie saw the remnants of slavery, the peak of Jim Crow, witnessed MLK Jr. speak and experienced so many other pivotal Black moments that I’ve only read about in books. Growing up in East Texas, everything granny Jonnie did felt like Black History Month, her […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Making change: Booze
Let’s talk about alcohol, creator of (sometimes toxic) relationships, (occasional over-) sharer of secrets, balm to some (destroyer of many). Welcome to the final installment of Making Change, a six-week series on the hows and whys of personal, social and political change. I type this from Ottawa, where I’m with people from frontline communities and […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Making Change: The Internet
Let’s talk about the faces we show to and hide from the world, and how the internet magnifies them all. Welcome to part five of Making Change, a six-week series on the hows and whys of personal, social and political change. For as long as I can remember, I’ve experienced the phenomenon I refer to […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
An Advocate’s Journey
I’ve long believed volunteering is the best way to get to know a community when you move to a new place. In 2014, I moved to Humboldt and spent my first few years picking up casual volunteer shifts when I could, gravitating first toward community cleanups and zero waste sorting at festivals, then toward helping […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Making Change: Love
In honor of this week’s Green Issue, let’s talk about … love. Welcome to part four of Making Change, a six-week series on the how and whys of personal, social and political change. Sometimes to define what one means requires explaining what one does not. I confess to an inner eye-roll when people talk about […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Making Change: Consumerism
Let’s talk about opting out of an economic system that neither our psyches nor our planet can sustain. Welcome to part three of Making Change, a six-week series on the hows and whys of personal, social and political change. I love to talk about money. (I even wrote a column about it in this paper.) […]