I’ve never been much of a stargazer. The urban northeast, where I lived for more than fifty years, offered scant prospecting beyond the Big and Little Dippers and the North Star, unless you had a telescope. My stargazing had been mostly limited to family trips to less populated parts of the country, from the Outer Banks in North Carolina to …

I lived in Ashland for several years before becoming involved in Southern Oregon University (SOU), two miles from our house. I first discovered the university’s Honors College with its remarkable students and faculty. I then became friends with the university’s new President, Rick Bailey, hired in 2022. The last three years, I’ve been a fellow-traveler as the university fights for …

A few days ago, I started re-reading Barbara Kingsolver’s 2002 novel, Small Wonder, a favorite of mine. I bathed in Kingsolver’s words as an antidote to an especially destructive week for our democracy — as if it hadn’t already been destroyed enough. Yesterday’s passage of the “Big Beautiful Bill” spurred me to spend today’s Independence Day harvesting some of Kingsolver’s …

When I was a child growing up in Salinas we called San Francisco “the City.” Of course it was the only city we knew, but I still think of it as the City, and so does everyone else who has ever associated with it. Once I knew the City very well, spent my attic days there, while others were being a …

Roadkill — in relation to animals and not politicians — is undeniably sad. If you’re like me, the easiest way to deal with that sadness is to look the other way. But, in reality, it’s haunting. When I was eighteen, my family, for whom driving across the country was a summer habit, decided to christen the Trans-Canada Highway which had …

“My identity in my house is ‘the one that goes to college, the one that is trying to do something for her life.’ Everybody looks at me, they’re proud of me,” a student who was the first in her family to go to college told me years ago. “Just to know that somebody is proud of you makes you reach …

Ashland, OR — In a city where 0.53 percent of the population is Black and 18 percent are 65 and older (‘23 census), the Empowered Arts Ensemble, with its young multi-racial acting troupe, stands apart. In a tourist destination dedicated to the Bard, it centers young people as theater creators in their own right. In lieu of challenging youth on …