On an unusually warm but cloudy March day about two weeks before the vernal equinox, I took a group hike in the woods at Prairiewoods Franciscan Spirituality Center in Hiawatha. Over an hour and half, we traversed about a quarter mile, a half at most.
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UR Here: Great change starts with conversation and community
As we look ahead to a world of profound — and often frightening — change, I stand firm in my belief and faith that our best field of action and our best hope is our local community and environment, our place and our home. As I write, this past weekend witnessed a historic national demonstration […]
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UR Here: Is home where the heart is?
One of the failures of adults, and even schools, is quashing the creativity of children. Too often, we tell them they’re not good at something — singing, drawing, writing and so forth. That leads to abandonment of natural joys that should be part of all of our lives. Something similar often happens with our relationship […]
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UR Here: Iowans need a lesson about home and community from Denmark
My maternal grandparents and other relatives immigrated to these American shores from Denmark. So I have to admit some sense of pride when the Danes show the rest of the world how to be a good society. Denmark is often atop the list of happiest countries. Their cultural concept of “hygge” — which means something […]
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UR Here: On embracing the value of doing nothing
As a typical middle-class grade-schooler in the ’60s, three months of freedom lay before me after the last school bell rang in June. This was a time when many moms stayed home to raise the kids and when summer camps and special classes were few and far between — for many of us, due to […]
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UR Here: Examining the ‘loose parts’ of the natural world
As I was driving home recently from the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge near Prairie City after finishing my first-ever nature photography workshop, my camera-obsessed eye could not help but see everything outside my car’s window as a picture. The principles of perspective, line, shape, pattern, texture, echo, visual flow and weight that I had […]
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UR Here: Rethinking the comfort zone
We often live by notions and aphorisms, sometimes perhaps more than we should. The greatest danger comes when guiding concepts become clichés, yet we still depend on them for understanding and direction. A number of times recently, I have run across the old saw that we should “get out of our comfort zone,” which has […]
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UR Here: A tense encounter on the Pentacrest turns transcendental
Recently, as I approached the University of Iowa’s Jessup Hall on my way to work one cold morning, a wide wingspan of majesty and terror flashed past my eyeline. A red-tailed hawk swooped past me not six feet away and landed elegantly upon a low branch in the Austrian pine to my left. A raptor’s […]
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UR Here: How variation in building facades can change the paths we take
Recently, I was sitting at the front window café bar of Iowa City’s Z’Marik’s Noodle Café on Dubuque Street eating my krith-a-raki for lunch when I decided to conduct a little experiment. For 15 minutes or so, I kept track of how many people walked past on my side of the street and how many […]
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UR Here: Top-down management of Black Hawk Mini Park at odds with park’s original vision
In my previous column, I discussed “place-led governance,” in which urban development considers history, cultural meaning and an inclusive understanding of community members’ use. At the core of place-led governance lies the idea of the commons. For most people, the commons means natural resources such as air, water and soils. Absolutely true—but not sufficient. Current […]
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UR Here: Summer excursions abound, but what are costs of time away from home?
“It’s great to be home!” A common refrain after a trip, whether returning from a vacation or a business trip, whether coming home after two days or two…
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UR Here: Sweating the small stuff
We are in midsummer, and that means sweat. It’s the time of year when our body regulates its temperature through perspiration, when the heat of the season beads up and runs down our skin with our slightest effort. It’s summer in Iowa…
