With the cold air outside,

listening to George Winston,

after a day of talking with fearful grieving parents,

I think about our shoes,

As we ran on the winter snow covered streets.

Our breath creating fog around our faces,

Glasses fogging up and freezing,

needing to be taken off and pocketed,

to defrost, before being put back on.

Our footprints the only marking of our passage,

until they filled with snow.

Peter’s beard freezing with ice.

Fred entertaining with a long story about…

something.

Stories told, stories embellished,

And one of us always chasing that younger version of his former runner self,

that fleet high school athlete,

left in the long ago past,

on some race track somewhere.

.

Running,

we solved the problems of the world on those long runs,

many times over.

.

Now older,

things have changed.

Time has moved the pieces on the chessboard around,

moving people in time and place.

Yet,

On days like tonight I see us all rounding that final corner.

Each eying each other,

who will break for the end of the street first,

who has been saving some in reserve.

All those quarter mile dashes,

chasing hats or bouncing pony tails.

.

Tonight, however, I will stay at my steady pace,

And prepare to take the dog for a walk.

I’ll look at the stars,

and give thanks,

Thanks to have answered some of life’s mysteries.

In the company of other runners.

 

© words and picture by Dan DeMarle 2017

 

If I could see tomorrow,

know what the day would bring,

would I just stay sitting here,

under this talking , whispering oak,

or run all the way to Samara.

The rustling leaves,

whisper to me,

disturbing news of tomorrow,

or is it of possible tomorrows?

Why do oracles always speak in whispers,

or riddles,

or in the rustling of leaves.

Can’t we just tell the truth,

The truth is that we will all die,

no matter what the rustling leaves say,

or promise.

.

The only real question,

the last remaining true one,

is how do I live my life between now and then.

 

© words and picture by Dan DeMarle 2017

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to give thanks, certainly for you health, your loved ones, your family. But also to give thanks in the larger term.  Think of all the foods on your menu today. Think of the farmers, the food processors, the factory laborers, the grocery store employees who all had something to do with getting that food to your table. Think of the people and perhaps artists or artisans involved in the plates, bowls, saucers that you will serve that food with. Think of a miner somewhere or growers who were involved in that salt and all of those other spices. Think of the food scientists and all of the other scientists and inventors involved in your  meal, and creating the technology to print that recipe book or to design and build the transportation system that will bring you or your guests wherever you or they are going,  We like to think of the holiday as individuals, yet that meal would not be possible without much of society working together to make it happen.

Lastly think of the fact that you are eating it, in the midst of “peace time”.  America is not actually at peace, and we have ongoing military actions across the world. We have men and women working today across the world to protect our country.  Some of our service members were able to make it home for the Holiday, Others are far from home serving our country. Some are eating far from home with friends or are being fed by others.

So when you sit and eat today, give Thanks, not just for the family members with you, but for all those others out there who literally helped you make that meal.

© words and picture by Dan DeMarle 2017

Will you have a real Thanksgiving this year?  To answer that you have to think for a bit about what the first Thanksgiving was.   It was a group of First Nations people, celebrating with a group of new immigrants from a land far across the ocean.  Of course they did not think of themselves as immigrants, but as people who would soon steal the land from the people they were eating with.  In a sense those first Pilgrim settlers were the reality of our worst immigrant fears. But before that happened, it was a group of disparate peoples coming together to break bread.  Strangers from different cultures eating together in celebration.  So forget the later genocide, for a day, and think about, or try to actually have a meal with someone unfamiliar to you.  And no that does not include  your daughters new boyfriend or your son’s new girlfriend, or your daughter’s new girlfriend, or your son’s new boyfriend.  Ok, maybe it does.  Regardless, remember that the first Thanksgiving was one people celebrating with their new immigrant neighbors.  Try to do the same.

© words and picture by Dan DeMarle 2017

“Look over there!!” NYC Times Square. October 2017

© Dan DeMarle 2017

“He was not an American. And he encountered Yosemite and he imagined what America could be.  And for a century, we’ve fought about whether we liked his vision or not.   MAN: I like what he said on one occasion where he essentially said, “the enemies of wildness are invincible, and they are everywhere, but the fight must go on and for every acre that you gain, you gain, 10,000 trees and flowers and all the other forest people and the usual unborn generations will rise up and call you blessed.”

From Ken Burn’s The last Refuse – Part of the Series: Ken Burns: The National Parks

© photo by Dan DeMarle 2017

© words and picture by Dan DeMarle 2017

© Dan DeMarle 2017