The Religious and Spiritual Appeal of National Parks
Religious elements of national parks may not be obvious, but visitors’ experiences rely to some extent on traditions of religious travel and religio-aesthetic interpretations.
Wilderness of Hope
Wilderness is a fantasy of human desires born of a false binary of wild nature without people. But imagining wilderness might deliver us to a new geography of hope.
Langston Hughes Slept Here
Springfield, Illinois, is a Lincoln-haunted town, and much of the old downtown has a Lincoln association of some sort or another. But more than Lincoln has happened there.
A yogic experience of raisin
A poem written for a yoga class relates the experience of meditating on a raisin and the transformative potential in contemplating raisinness.
Considering Tourism
At many tourist sites, authenticity reigns as the holy grail of the religious quest, a sacred commodity positioned to seduce touristic desires.
Black Robes and the Book of Heaven
A Nez Perce delegation arrived in St. Louis in 1831, but Protestants and Catholics tell very different stories about them.
Lessons in whiteness
Even well-meaning opinions by voices presuming to be immune from the racist elements of their whiteness cannot avoid the histories embedded in their language, attitudes, and perspectives.
Moonrise over Meeman-Shelby Forest
The moon rises over the forested horizon as we witness its appearance from the lake shore. How many moonrises have we seen across these waters?
The Abundant Life of the Hoh Rain Forest
The Hoh Rain Forest waits as a patient guide, a moss-embroidered forest of wisdom, lined with ferns and storied over with trees older than memory.
The unheard songs of Saddleback Mountain
Saddleback Mountain stands silent, motionless, stoic above frantic, superficial California as a reminder that some remnant of wildness persists beyond the freeways and strip malls.
Grieving and Gratitude: A Remembrance of Lindsay Jones
My remembrance of and tribute to Lindsay Jones, a great teacher, a great friend, and an exemplary human being.
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is unlike any other canyon in color, charm, in picturesque calendar-ready beauty, wild and frightening.