Published in ILLUMINATION-Curated·16 hours agoMember-onlyI’m Being HauntedBy a character of my own creation Charles Goodfoote is his name. I wrote him as the hero of a couple of light mysteries, a mixed-blood Pinkerton Operative, at home in the wilderness of Montana or the vaulted corridors of power in President Grant’s Washington. Now, he shows up night…Writing4 min readWriting4 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION-Curated·Jan 27Member-onlyTalk to The AnimalsAlaskan stories — 1 — When my wife Ellen and I lived and worked in Nome, Alaska, we often met for lunch at The Glue Pot, a local diner. It was a sort of community meeting place for non-natives and indigenous people alike. During one luncheon, a middle-aged native man approached our table with some…Alaska3 min readAlaska3 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION-Curated·Jan 10Member-onlyMy JournalsFootfalls in Memory of a life well-lived — A few days ago, I found a poem in my email written by my friend, Simran Kankas, called The Room of the Past. (K A Simran) One morning I opened the room of the past. Saw the memories lying around One by one I started putting them Into a rusty…Memories4 min readMemories4 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION-Curated·Jan 6Member-onlyMy Brush With GreatnessLiving the dream — Ike was in the White House, the Milwaukee Braves were on a roll, and I was parked in my favorite spot, the left-field bleachers in the Milwaukee County Stadium. The sun in an azure sky beat down on my Irish red hair and freckles, as I pounded the pocket in…Memoir3 min readMemoir3 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION-Curated·Sep 3, 2022Member-onlyComing to KnowingThe Knowledge Keepers of Tracking — In the Art and Science of tracking humans and other critters, personal experience is the primary teaching tool. But there are different ways of looking at this ancient craft. Hours, days, months, and years with my face down over some impression in the mud, snow, gravel, or dust filled my…Native American Culture6 min readNative American Culture6 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION-Curated·Aug 24, 2022Member-onlyI Asked the North Star a QuestionThe Answer Was Only the Beginning — While not a religious man who accepts things on faith, I’ve experienced more than one occasion where the forces that run the Universe took the time to demonstrate to me that there’s more to this Cosmos than just a bunch of swirling galaxies and some accidental events. On one occasion…Awareness5 min readAwareness5 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION-Curated·Jun 7, 2022Member-onlyWhat Defines Me?A Life Question as I approach my 81st Birthday — A friend, Simran Kankas, wrote a poem that got me thinking. This is it in part. Who I was Who I have become Does not define me. For I am yet to see, What I will be. What I had been taught What I have learned The lessons don’t describe…Philosophy2 min readPhilosophy2 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION-Curated·May 17, 2022Member-onlyThe Mysterious Dao of IllusionLao Tzu and Jean Baudrillard — . In the lecture hall of the French Academy, Jean Baudrillard was nearing the end of his lecture to a hundred or so men and women. …Philosophy10 min readPhilosophy10 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION-Curated·May 7, 2022Member-onlyBeware The Two-Headed CoyoteIt’s always waiting and always hungry — Some fellow trackers and I were running a workshop for a group of students in Neopit, a town on the Menominee Indian Reservation in Wisconsin, when a tribal police officer stopped to see what we were doing. …True Crime4 min readTrue Crime4 min read
Published in ILLUMINATION-Curated·Mar 2, 2022Member-onlyMaster Bao and the ImmortalLifestyles of Immortals — Master Bao rode his great ox, Xi, along a trail that led between two mountains. His pupil, Ping, strode alongside. “These are beautiful mountains, Master, but the road is becoming steep,” Ping said. “Your youth and robust health will flatten the hills, Student Ping. Soon, we will arrive at the…Taoism10 min readTaoism10 min read
