Knives and Friendship

The original Instagram post about this knife from its creator, Sourwood Forge.

We'd been trying to connect for a couple of weeks, a buddy and I.

Our schedules hadn't seemed to sync for a spell and we really wanted (needed) to chat more about an upcoming collaboration dinner we were putting together for a fundraiser auction for the school our respective kids go to. He's a chef, I'm a local forest forager of foods, and an avid hunter and fisher. The auction was coming up and while we'd loosely planned out each meal course, we hadn't yet had many opportunities to test out different ingredients or dishes with different drink combinations. Or refine our meal plan. We'd made plans for weeks to connect but as busy family men, things had come up and we simply hadn't been able to connect. And we DO love to connect, sometimes sitting on one of our stoops, sharing a local craft beer or spirit over good late evening conversations.

Our electronic interactions had ramped up in the last couple of days, but both of us were working long hours and had limited evening time...which is usually spent with our families. And what little windows of time we did have didn't seem to overlap with each other. It seemed we just couldn't connect.

Until tonight.

We both happened to be doing evening family walks with kiddos and dogs and the timing aligned. He stopped by as he was headed out and we were just getting back. He brought a few ingredients from around the globe for us to try and consider in our auction meal planning. Umeboshi (salted and fermented) plums, salt pickled lemon and Szechuan peppercorns. We sampled and ate each of these, talked about potential flavor combinations for dishes and which spices and drinks might pair well with them.

And then, just as he was making indications it was time for him to head back home, he said he had one more present. I should also mention he is also a good teller of stories and builds the context and tension along the storylines well. And while the story is good, it was also a personal one.

Suffice it to say, in the course of his sharing, he proceeded to proffer a knife. But not just any knife. A knife with a story which included another friendship. And intention. And time and care.

See this image and others of this knife at this Instagram post.

It is a remarkable piece made by a remarkable artisan of metal and craft and gifted from a remarkable friend.

A view of the craftsmanship, metal and leather, and tanto-style blade tip.

Some traditions hold that you must also give a coin when you give a knife as a gift. Then the person receiving the gift can give back the coin to the giver. This symbolizes it is an exchange rather than a gift and ensures the knife does not cut the friendship. I grew up with the tradition of giving our own coins to the giver of the knife. And as a coin collector of sorts, I usually have some interesting coins. So tonight, the gift in exchange was the first National Park Service gold coin we got upon coming to Colorado, a commemorative coin from the 100th anniversary of Rocky Mountain National Park (in 2015).

View of the front of the 100 year commemorative coin for Rocky Mountain National Park.

My son was fascinated with the entire interaction, from friendship to food to knife to coin to conversation. And it was a great opportunity to model how to graciously accept a gift of the heart -- something I definitely need to work at -- and to also give a gift of the heart, while not making it simply about an exchange or expectation but rather something emblematic of so much more -- of friendship, an attitude of giving and sharing, and receiving, of gratitude and humility.

There was so much goodness in this brief interaction. Goodness that propagates outward in ways we may never know or understand. Goodness which we share with our children. And with you and those who will be bidding on this collaboration dinner auction item.

Three cheers for living and all the experiences therein.

#knives #blacksmith #smithy #friendship #coins #artisan #metalcraft #knife #leather #tonto #camelbone #buffalohorn #51200 #steel #utilityknife #gratitude @sourwoodforge 

Fixing things in a throw-away society

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/BsOD8bYHnGb/

I was raised without many "things", instead my parents focused on experiences and relationship (with each other, with the rest of the natural world). What we did have, we fixed if it broke. 

In a society comprised largely of cheap consumables with short usable lives where the intent is to dispose of it rather than fix it (planned obsolescence), and where some of our most pressing planetary problems are linked with refuse/garbage/waste, I have worked hard to instill a fix-it sensibility in my kiddos. And it seems to be working as they seem convinced I can fix anything. I can't...but I attempt to. 

This morning my daughter brought me one of her cherished, handmade Kenyan beaded bracelets where one snap had broken. We replaced the broken snap together. I never once saw any doubt in her eyes that we could fix it. Or any worry that the bracelet would have to be chucked since it had a broken snap. This morning, I am feeling good about teaching this to them.

It also has me wondering about things or scenarios in which "fixing" it would NOT be a recommended course of action? In what scenarios in nature is "waste" not repurposed somehow?

Now to get to other broken things as they pile up at my place at the table...

Raising little advocates

My daughter tears this Knob Creek ad out of one of her latest National Geographic magazines, brings it to me and says - in a bit of a brusque tone - "Do you know what's missing from this picture, Papa?"

I Look at it, in silence for a few moments and posit an answer - "a woman?"

"See, YOU know", she says, and walks back to her bed before continuing "...and I'm going to cut out a picture of me and paste it onto this ad."

Good Lord I love this girl.

On humility and reaching for the stars

As we head further still into the great unknowns, ever reaching to touch the hem of God's garment, I am reminded of Ray Bradbury's poem "If Only We Had Taller Been", reminded that striving for knowledge is buried deep in the marrow of our bones, of our collective species history, perhaps written on the stardust traveling deep in the recesses of space and time.

I am also reminded to be humble; reminded that some things may simply be unknowable and that sometimes, sometimes simply resting peacefully in the unknowable may be enough. And yet, other times, many times, curiosity and exploration bring enlightenment.

Three cheers for Elon Musk's, Tesla's SpaceX's Falcon Heavy launch last week, for Starman taking us deeper into the great unknowns. Three cheers for knowledge, for curiosity, for science, for philosophy, for the deep interconnectedness that is.

May we continue striving to slake our thirst for knowledge and meaning and purpose while remaining humble enough to keep the insidious tendrils of conceit at bay even while it remind us to ever strive for learning and knowledge, for wisdom in how and when to exercise them, for reaching for the stars while yet being fully present in the here and now, grateful for what is.

Onward.

~~~~~~~~~
"If Only We Had Taller Been"
~Ray Bradbury 1920-2012

The fence we walked between the years
Did balance us serene
It was a place half in the sky where
In the green of leaf and promising of peach
We'd reach our hands to touch and almost touch the sky
If we could reach and touch, we said,
'Twould teach us, not to, never to, be dead

We ached and almost touched that stuff;
Our reach was never quite enough.
If only we had taller been
And touched God's cuff, His hem,
We would not have to go with them
Who've gone before,
Who, short as us, stood as they could stand
And hoped by stretching tall that they might keep their land
Their home, their hearth, their flesh and soul.
But they, like us, were standing in a hole

O, Thomas, will a Race one day stand really tall
Across the Void, across the Universe and all?
And, measured out with rocket fire,
At last put Adam's finger forth
As on the Sistine Ceiling,
And God's hand come down the other way
To measure man and find him Good
And Gift him with Forever's Day?
I work for that

Short man, Large dream
I send my rockets forth between my ears
Hoping an inch of Good is worth a pound of years
Aching to hear a voice cry back along the universal mall:
We've reached Alpha Centauri!
We're tall, O God, we're tall!

Watch a video of a tribute to the New Horizons mission set to Ray Bradbury reading his poem - it is remarkable:

https://youtu.be/sEg4D7s3fOs

Meetings with your academic advisor - a humorous interpretation

Is it just me or does it seem like there are two very different takes on the graduate school advisor-advisee relationship?! Allow me to introduce you to Bob Wiley - a man who can illustrate all of life's dilemmas. Ladies and gentlemen, a hypothetical (typical?) grad/advisor meeting as illustrated by "What About Bob?" (with a couple other additions).

You, upon bumping into your very busy advisor and realizing it's the perfect opportunity to get a rescheduled meeting on the calendar with them:

Still, seeing an opportunity, you try to wrangle a little time from your advisor's calendar given how many times the meeting has already been reschedule...

...and you'd REALLY like to get a little help with some suggestions for how to free yourself from the tar pit trap you seem to be slowly sinking into - the situation feels a little desperate. The interaction doesn't go exactly as you pictured it going. And now you're worried about how you think your advisor sees this interaction.

Finally, they acquiesce...

...and you get a rescheduled meeting date nailed down:

Fast forward to the day of your meeting. You realize you're not as prepared as you wanted to be (probably from poor planning)...so you attempt to get yourself mentally ready.

FINALLY, the moment arrives!

You sit down with your advisor for them to immediately note - quite correctly but for the umpteenth time - how little progress you've made in your research over the last few months. Then they ask you - "So, what's the problem?"

Now fully unsure of yourself and how to respond, you come up with some dim-witted excuses to try to absolve yourself of some (all?) of the responsibility, to pin the blame elsewhere, anywhere, on them!

...and my bladder explodes.


To which your already-pressed-for-time advisor responds:



Now you, feeling understandably like a heel, leave the meeting worrying about how messed up you are and wondering if it will ever get better. It feels a bit like the dark soul of night. So, to cope, you fall back into old habits.

...before wisely seeking help from the Counseling And Psychiatric Services (CAPS) program on campus.


Bill. Frickin'. Murray. Comedic genius. And perfect salve for all that ails you.

Taxing the Poor - #SaveGradEd

Robin Hood GIF from Rent GIFs

https://actionnetwork.org/letters/grad-students-may-be-taxed-on-income-they-dont-even-get
 FIRST LETTER SENT
I urge you to oppose any tax bill that eliminates the tuition wavier provision which allows graduate student employees to afford an education.

The tax bills currently moving through Congress threaten support for graduate students, colleges and universities, and tax fairness. The House Republican tax plan (HR 1) would force graduate student employees to pay hundreds (or thousands, in my case) of dollars more in taxes by treating the value of their tuition waivers as taxable income, leading to a tax bill graduate student employees can’t afford on the salary of a graduate research or teaching assistant.

If graduate tuition waivers were taxed, in-state graduate student employees at the University of Colorado Boulder, for example, could be taxed on an additional $22,000 of income (and that amount doubles for out-of-state and international students) while receiving the same income they currently make. That number increases for graduate student employees at private institutions with higher tuition, and will hurt grad student employees across the country. This would simply put graduate school out of reach for all but the wealthiest students, and would significantly harm our institutions’ missions of providing high quality undergraduate education and world-class research.

Graduate employees, in addition to preparing for careers in teaching and research, are on the frontlines in college classrooms and laboratories every day, helping undergraduates succeed and performing ground-breaking research. Even with a graduate assistantship and tuition waiver, too many of grad employees are forced to go into debt to do this important work and obtain a graduate degree.

Support graduate students, colleges and universities, and tax fairness – oppose any tax plan that eliminates the tuition waiver provision for graduate student employees and that cuts other education benefits.

SECOND LETTER SENT (12/01/17)
I urge you to vote NO on the current tax bills. If these bills pass in their current form and I am unfairly taxed on income I never received (i.e., graduate tuition waiver), I will be forced to withdraw from the PhD program at CU-Boulder and can no longer help people and communities in Colorado and across the United States learn how to live more safely with wildfire. That would be a double tragedy.

I urge you to oppose the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which is a massive redistribution of wealth to the already rich at the expense of educators, first responders, homeowners, union members and our local communities. This bill is bad for our public schools, bad for our communities and bad for a majority of Americans.

The tax bill would replace one system that is unfair to the majority of Americans with another. It would hugely cut taxes to big corporations and hedge funds while making the poor and middle class pay more.

This bill takes away deductions that have reduced the tax burden for homeowners and working families. For example, the House bill would eliminate the $250 tax deduction used by the 99.5 percent of educators who spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on their classrooms and their students. Millions of middle-class families would see their tax burden increase under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

The bill would also repeal the century-old state and local tax deduction for individuals. However, in a slap in the face to working families, corporations will still be allowed to take this deduction. Overall, the proposal would hurt property values and every community that uses tax dollars to invest in essential services like schools, firefighters, police and sanitation.

It is clear that the purpose of eliminating deductions that help middle-class families reduce their tax burden is to fund tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy, which the vast majority of this tax plan’s benefits go toward. This bill’s preference for the wealthy over the middle class and communities is blatant. While undermining unions and state and local government services by eliminating those deductions, it does the exact opposite when it comes to big corporations, hedge funds and the already wealthy: It reduces the corporate tax rate by 15 percent; helps hedge funds and others reduce their true tax liability by paying a much-reduced “pass-through” rate; weakens or repeals the estate tax for the wealthy so they can pass on their inheritances tax-free; and keeps all sorts of loopholes, like carried interest, that Trump promised to get rid of when he was campaigning.

We’ve seen this plan before, in Kansas, where Republicans slashed taxes for the wealthy and corporations and shrank government, promising it would usher in an economic boom. It didn’t. The five-year experiment caused state revenue to plummet, the deficit to explode, and painful spending cuts to be made—including cuts decimating public schools.

A bill that undermines public services and raises taxes on millions of middle-class families, all to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, does not deserve your support. I urge you to reject the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Revisiting some things core to me

I love that Facebook routinely dredges back up posts and pictures from years past. The picture Facebook brought back this morning reminded me of a couple of core, foundational aspects of who I am, of my true heart - nature inspires me and I love sharing that inspiration with others, with you.

Eight years ago today, on a tiny creek in the Willamette Valley just outside of Corvallis, Oregon, on a cold and blustery Fall day, I was warmed inside by the fascination, curiosity and inspiration I saw in the faces, minds and hearts of a bunch of homeschooled children and their parents (short photo album) as we explored parts of nature they had rarely seen or interacted with - it's one thing to know about something; it's another thing entirely to understand it, to feel the connection to something broader than our own private spaces. The collective fascination we all held that day was captivating.

I've mused about this sense of awe and wonder, curiosity and inspiration a lot over the years - still regularly do. I wrote this blog post (reflection) shortly after one of these field trips.

https://notquiteconvergent.blogspot.com/2009/10/fostering-sense-of-place.html

...then wrote about a related notion a few years later - fostering a sense of place.

https://notquiteconvergent.blogspot.com/2012/03/getting-to-know-area-you-live-in.html

Today, I was reminded these things are core to who I am as a person. And I love sharing this with you all. All of this from a simple Facebook reminder of an image I posted eight years ago today. Sometimes the little things remind me of something much larger - what a marvelous little big reminder today. Thank you, Facebook, for reminding me of this memory...and of something much larger.