Since our retirement from law a year ago we've spent a lot more time at our home in Gig Harbor on Colvos Passage looking out at Vashon Island and Mount Rainier. Things I've not paid attention to are now enjoyable to see and experience. This morning while Lita and I were having coffee on the upper balcony four deer came along the beach at the outer edge. The tide was out and they walked in single file with their hoofs…
Every day we read in the newspaper or see on television new atrocities committed around the world against human beings by those professing to do so as complying with the will of God. Beheadings, suicide bombing and killing children are all pleasing to God in their eyes. For many thousands of people around the world, religion is a matter of strict rule compliance in all things both petty and large. Compliance, for them, means not just following very strict rules, but…
As a school student I, along with everyone else in my generation, was introduced to Lincoln's famous speech during the civil war now known as the Gettysburg Address. I've often thought of this address as an illustration of Lincoln's following his own analysis of who he was and what he thought best. Here he was, the president of the United States, and his invitation to speak was only an after thought to the event. His invitation was a last minute one and then asked only to make…
We’ve been home ten days from our trip to France and are over the worst of jet lag, but still waking up at anywhere from three to five a.m. We flew British Air to London and London to Lyon, France. We had first class tickets, so the first leg was very comfortable with flat beds. Heathrow is a difficult airport because of all the walking that is involved and the need to ride buses to change terminals, but we survived…
