Last night the Duluth Art Institute hosted the opening for my wife Shawna’s largest and highest profile art exhibition ever: Land of Wonder. Writing up the following diddy for the backside of the price list helped me see just how much her work influences our lives for the better. The event was mobbed last night, … More A journey along the edges of the Land of Wonder
This past week I made the annual pilgrimage to this abandoned shack that lies astride the Canadian border. The newbie on the trip brought along one of those fancy Garmin GPS things. Preferring zero connectivity and an apparent affinity for buttons over zippers, this made me uncomfortable. I must admit that change can be good, however, … More 48 degrees north!
60 degrees below zero. February 2, 1996. The temperature zoomed all the way up to -36° by afternoon. What a day! On this very memorable day I scaled Eagle Mountain, the highest point in Minnesota. To mark the occasion, and also to lend a little support to a letter I recently sent, I’m sharing a … More 20th anniversary of a great day
Gaelynn Lea possesses an indefinable spark that is impossible to capture in a short vignette. It’s like attempting to capture lightning in a bottle. A multifaceted diamond that I’ve only begun to fully appreciate, it’s difficult to settle on a place to begin. Perhaps I’ll start by sharing her entry, recorded live in her office just last … More Gaelynn Lea. Wow. Just, WOW!
Out on the world’s largest freshwater sandbar—the point of demarcation between the greatest lake in the world, Superior, and the enormous St. Louis River estuary—resides one of the most fascinating families you could ever meet. Two boys, one 16 and the other 12, operate tremendously ambitious and entrepreneurial businesses that are inextricably tied to this land … More One family, many businesses: Max Organics, Ben’s Blooms, Duluth Trading Company, and more!
The last known American slave, Sylvester Magee, died in 1971, just five years before I was born. Now, at 9:19 pm on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I’m finally stopping to reflect on how slavery’s reality is much closer to us than we might think. My kids, who were off school today for the holiday, … More Brief reflections before turning in on MLK Day
I was tempted to title this post I’m the Smartest Guy in the World, but I decided to wait until another life-changing epiphany flows from my extra large brain. Two in a row ain’t no accident folks, so that’s when I’ll stake my claim. Today’s act of greatness—one which arose from a unique moment of procrastination fused with perceived need—consisted … More Chickens in bitter cold, and The Smartest Guy in the World
For the first time in who-knows-how-long, the past two days have brought interesting mail: the kind that elicits a response. If only the mailman knew how much a part of my life he has become! Every single morning I rush out to the mailbox expectantly, almost immediately after he arrives—well, not wishing to appear overly … More Mail Call
The process of redrawing life during midlife is absolutely confounding. Marriage, children, and mortgage, are responsibilities that hinder one’s appetite for risk. Perhaps that’s one reason why Millennials seem to capture all of the media’s attention with respect to cultural indicators and trends. Recently I was offered a part-time job working as a baker for … More A young man pursues his passion of baking sourdough in lieu of a PhD
Writing this column was more like an exorcism than some sort of creative outpour. As I fell asleep beside the woodstove last week on the night of the deadline, I had absolutely nothing. Since it’s delivered to every household in the city, this is terrifying. I drifted in and out of consciousness for hours, as if … More Hope. Smells like bacon
Ed's Big Adventure 