Tomorrow I meet with my first class of students. Twenty-two people who are absolute strangers to me at this moment. There’s so much possibility in the next 16 weeks. This–the night before my first class–is my favorite feeling of the semester. It’s that hopeful sweet spot. I only know the imagined good of my students. … Continue reading
Monthly Archives: August 2017
Snow Pack (Blood and Stone part 2)
It’s mid-August and there’s still snow on the Sierra Nevada. So many people I’ve talked to note the presence of patchy iced water with pride as if somehow all of us here in California did that. Made the rivers flood again and the Eastern Sierra fuzz green with our hope through the drought years. And … Continue reading
Manzanar 2017
My first impression is that of expanse. There is so much space, and with the August heat, my body feels pulled apart, stretched across the bristly landscape. Then there is the feeling of being so small, huddled like we are against the eastern Sierra. Nothing, not even clouds, to shelter us from their jagged teeth. … Continue reading
2.1 Homesteading (7)
When we are developing in the womb, the gut structure begins forming somewhere around the second week of gestation. This simple tube is laid out with epithelial and endothelial cell layers delineating what is inside and what is outside the future body. At birth, we already have the basic folds and villi of the small … Continue reading
2.1 Homesteading (6)
In our discussion of this first step of colonization, we are talking a lot about food energy, and we’ve listed types of food energy as being part of the second step. Are we essentially talking about the same thing and just separating it into two steps? Yes and no. The basic skills of a colonizing … Continue reading
Sierra Spring in Late Summer
There are rain curtains everywhere, flicking over and around the mountains. The air here is that crisp desert air at high altitude: like the focus has been set to infinity and if you could just concentrate you’d be able to see clearly the albeit microbe-sized things on the distant hills. It’s like one of those … Continue reading
