Make Snow Where You Can
Building Community The winter landscape for the beginning of 2025, much like the winter landscape for virtually all of 2024,
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Author: Tim Johnson
Winter’s Gifts
Building Community The snow blower is ready to go. It is possible; of course, we will have another poor excuse
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Creating A Picture of Hope
Building Community The mural on the wall was a fair representation of what the young people who accompanied me to
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I See You
It is a small gesture, but when you are trying to cross four lanes of traffic at the corner of West 7th and Goodrich, the gesture and the recognition matters. Each Tuesday I navigate that stretch of road in order to join long time colleagues and friends for breakfast at the Day By Day Café. Sometimes, too often, I feel virtually invisible as cars speed by seemingly unaware or uninterested in a pedestrian hoping to safely make it to the other side. But, invariably there is a person who sees me, slows down and motions for me to cross. Since it is four lanes, I never take one person’s stopping as sufficient, but what often seems to be the case is that if one person stops it triggers other people doing the same thing. It is good to be seen.
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Wrapped in the Flag
Wrapped in the American flag, the picture tells the story. Having just won a gold medal for team gymnastics, five American women proudly wrap themselves in the stars and stripes. Jade Carey holds one end of the flag. Hezly Rivera holds the other. In the center is the GOAT for gymnastics, Simone Biles. Next to Simone is Suni Lee on one side and Jordan Chiles on the other. It is a striking image that stands in sharp and hopeful contrast to ways in which the American flag has too often been used, not as an image of inclusion, but rather as a symbol of exclusion and hate.
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Pursuing Happiness
Building Community She stood on the side of the road with a small child on her back and one at
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Keeping Fear in Its Place
Our response was instinctive, as if our bodies made decisions without consulting our minds. The huge bear on the other side of the glass lunged toward us and in unison we all quickly stepped back. We were at Como Zoo.
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Range Anxiety and the Green Book
When it comes to electric vehicles, range anxiety is a thing. “Will we make it to our destination?” being the central question driving the anxiety. In late January we leased an electric car from Hyundai. Our Ioniq 5 has a range of 266 miles, which is quite sufficient for traveling anywhere in the Metro region. Our goal, however, was St. Augustine, Florida to visit family. Would we make it the entire way, finding charging stations when needed or would we find ourselves stranded along the road in Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky or one of the other states through which we had to travel?
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