Images of a baby wearing a sash emblazoned with “2014” may have helped you ring in the new year last month. Infant symbolism for the birth of a new year is pretty obvious. And even though starting the calendar on January 1 is rather arbitrary (in fact, England returned to the January 1 new year […]
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UR here: A traditional spice takes center stage
As autumn segues to winter, my seasonal spice shifts, too. Since September, it’s been all about nutmeg for me, the one essential ingredient to my apple crisp (aside from Wilson’s Orchard apples, of course). But as Thanksgiving passes to Yuletide, nutmeg yields to cardamon. Oh sure, I’ll still sprinkle a little nutmeg on the old […]
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UR Here: Embracing autumn’s long, smoldering twilights
I welcome the rhythm of the day’s turn toward night. The sun lowers, oranges and purples intensify, time and breath stretch. Rest seeps in, and darkness caresses us to sleep. The year has a similar rhythm, writ large. Autumn dissolves to winter. Samhain turns toward Yule. The dark descends, earlier and earlier. The sun makes […]
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Mapping the middle: What delineates the heartland
I’m a lifelong Midwesterner and a devotee to and student of the region. But I’m usually left stammering when it comes to defining the human culture of these middle lands. The U.S. Census Bureau’s definition of the Midwest includes over 65 million people. Can there really be a set of common characteristics among such a […]
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UR Here: David Byrne loves Iowa, but are his sentiments a bit delusional?
David Byrne seems to like Iowa. And I’m glad of that. I’m also glad that he had a chance to bike around and experience a Des Moines Fourth of July while he was…
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UR Here: Noxious nostalgia
Summer is here, and those distinctive smells of the hot season abound: trees and flowers in bloom, humidity in the air, the ozone before a late-afternoon thunderstorm, your fired-up backyard grill, the chlorine in a refreshing pool. Many of these smells no doubt spark pleasant memories of childhood—those lazy summer days when time felt endless […]
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UR Here: Where is the wonder?
When astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson spoke to a capacity crowd at The University of Iowa in April, he said that through his teaching of the marvels of the universe he tries “to reignite some sense of wonder.” He went on to say that if you’re not wondering “you’re not fully embracing all that it is […]
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UR Here: Home is where the hygge is
Hygge (roughly pronounced hö-geh, though with a little more “oo” on that umlauted o) is a Danish word that defies English translation. Its closest Anglo analogue is probably cozy, but that doesn’t fully capture what hygge is all about. Hygge is a feeling, a condition, but Danes tend to define it more by action and situation than abstractions.
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UR Here: There’s something a little bit extra about Eble Music
Last week at Eble Music, I picked up the next piece my daughter, Sylvia, will be working on for her saxophone lessons, Alfred Desenclos’s “Prélude, cadence, et finale.” As I walked down Linn Street after my purchase, I said to myself, “You know, I think Eble Music may just be the best local business in town.” I don’t mean to diminish any of our other marvelous local retailers in any way, but, in my experience, there’s something a little bit extra about Eble Music.
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UR Here: Valuing the Faraway
I like to think of this time of year as “in deep.” As I write in late January, no snow is on the ground, and we have had our share of warmth this year. Yet, even though the winter of 2013 has so far been relatively mild, spring and summer still seem far away. I […]
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UR Here: Objects of my Admiration
I went to Wisconsin, and all I brought back were a bunch of bark shavings from a red pine tree. This fall, I attended a “Land Ethic Leader” workshop at the Aldo Leopold Center near Baraboo, Wisconsin. If you don’t know, Aldo Leopold—born and raised in Burlington, Iowa—is arguably the twentieth century’s greatest conservationist. He authored […]
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UR Here: Open Spaces
In the days when prairies stretched from river to river across the expanse of what we now call Iowa, bison disturbance was essential to the health of the ecosystem. As the herds thundered across the grasslands and created wallows—depressions in the ground in which the animals rolled to cover themselves in mud and dirt—like a […]
