A few years ago, I found myself walking along an empty beach on a remote stretch of the northern coast of British Columbia.  The snow-capped peaks of Alaskan mountains seemed just a pebble’s throw away.  To the west was the dim, spectral blue-grey haze of the Haida Gwaii islands.  Beyond that, only Japan. But I… Read more »

“Kids think with their brains cracked wide open; becoming an adult, I’ve decided, is only a slow sewing shut.” Jodi Picoult There is a place on the borderlands of our consciousness, where the great beasts of human inventiveness—human potential—frolic and prowl.  It is the realm where art and science, left brain attention to detail and… Read more »

To put it kindly, my years of formal education were a mess.  In elementary school, I was “The Little Engine That Couldn’t,” trying to haul freight cars filled with thunderstorms and shadows along torn-up rails, over jagged, bleak mountain passes. Predictably, my high school years were a battleground.  I was forever behind enemy lines, learning… Read more »