Three Years Old Today!

Happy Birthday Silas. We Love YOU!
...and we will never forget the day you were born!

I love this little soapstone carving.

I made this in 1991 in Machakos, Kenya when I was 20. I was traveling at the time during a week off from classes (intensive swahili of which I remember very little). I went on an adventure with a friend... looking for artists willing to show us how they 'do what they do' and we stumbled upon a village called Kissii (where there are little mini-earthquakes ALL the TIME!) and I met a family there that let me hang out with them for a week. I watched them make the most incredible graceful carvings of animals in minutes. Even the children could do it! (I tried but ended up with 1/2 finished, crude impressions....)
When I left they gave me as much soapstone as I could carry and I carved a little bit everyday the rest of my time spent in Africa. I brought a few of the smaller pieces home with me on the plane a few months later.
This is one of them. It is very simple and is my favorite.
What is amazing to me is that it is a carving of a mother, a father and 3 children...long before I had any idea how my future would unfold. I also love that I even have a picture of me making it!

Just look at Them.

Every night all over
the globe
there are parents... watching
their babies
of all ages, for an extra
moment,
after they have fallen
asleep, before
shutting the light, and
feeling...
hoping...
knowing,
for the sake of their
young hearts,
that there is more
good than bad
in the world.

Remember E.T.????

Roasting Vegetables for Soup

It

feels

like

Fall

now.

SNL Tough on Obama, and Rightly So

Anyone else weirded-out, but not surprised, by the GOP's glee over losing the Olympic Bid??

read this article

Exactly what I have been thinking.

..." this episode (with the Olympic bid) illustrated an essential truth about the state of American politics: at this point, the guiding principle of one of our nation’s two great political parties is spite, pure and simple. If Republicans think something might be good for the president, they’re against it — whether or not it’s good for America."...
Paul Krugman