August 17, 2023
Tips for a new Westerner
Hurray, you’ve moved to the rural West from a crowded subdivision or city where the traffic has become an out-of-patience game, and now you want to fit in.
Hurray, you’ve moved to the rural West from a crowded subdivision or city where the traffic has become an out-of-patience game, and now you want to fit in.
Usually seen with a camera slung around his neck, Allen Best edits a one-man online journalism shop he calls “Big Pivots.” Its beat is the changes made necessary by our rapidly warming climate, and he calls it the most important story he’s ever covered.
When I read the Salt Lake Tribune editorial on July 2, my heart sank. A Utah man with severe mental illness had died in a poorly regulated care home, with a mere $8,000 fine levied against the managers.
“. . . we need to do everything we can to keep (global) warming as low as possible.”
A spectacular picture recently appeared on social media of a young lady in Arizona. She was poised on the edge of a cliff emblazoned with sunset colors. Immediately her online followers clamored to know where the picture was taken, so “I can get one just like it.”
The July 21, 2023, theatrical release of the film Oppenheimer, focused on the life of a prominent American nuclear physicist, should help to remind us of how badly the development of modern weapons has played out for individuals and for all of humanity.
Through a WhatsApp message from Portugal, my friend Eunice Neves asked to share a moment with me. She was with an Afghan couple, Frishta and Mohammad, and their baby son, Arsalan. The young family has resettled in Mértola, a small city in southern Portugal. They looked forward to celebrating World Refugee Day as part of a project which the Portuguese government lauds as a model for refugee resettlement.
When I was leading groups into the Wyoming wilderness in the 1990s, once we left a trailhead, we were on our own.
We humans want the most out of life, so why shouldn’t we push to get more of what we want?
The good news these days about Farmington, New Mexico, is that the air looks clear. That’s a huge change.
