\u201cSo do you have a website?\u201d friends and colleagues have asked.\u00a0 \u201cDo you have a blog?\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0 Well, I am a historian who does in fact live in the past at times.\u00a0 \u201cI see dead people\u201d\u2013\u2013no, not ghosts (perhaps a subject for another day), but I do see towns in their heyday from the remnants left behind, and I am there.\u00a0 But, truth be told, I am more than a bit of a Luddite.\u00a0 No dishwasher, no microwave\u2013\u2013and I have a working dial telephone in my living room.<\/p>\n
At birth I was blessed with a great gift\u2013\u2013that of wonder. There is wonder in the wind and the stars and sandhill cranes flying overhead, and also in dandelions springing up through cracked concrete and old sad houses needing love and people with the eyes to see their beauty.<\/p>\n
Once upon a time I wrote about these sorts of things and more, in \u201calternative\u201d newspapers that popped up like toadstools after a rain and often disappeared just as quickly.\u00a0 I wrote for Metro, The Indianapolis Weekly, The Indianapolis Citizen<\/em>\u2013\u2013and several others long forgotten.\u00a0 These sorts of papers are gone, but in many ways, blogs have replaced them.\u00a0 In the old days I wrote longhand with number 2 pencils on a yellow pad; now it\u2019s on a keyboard, but in weeks and months to come I will write of old buildings and old towns (I do a lot of work in historic preservation); the earth and its songs, my wanderings, and throughout all, the wonder.<\/p>\n I begin this new adventure on the first of December, and my heart dances in the season\u2019s first snowfall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cSo do you have a website?\u201d friends and colleagues have asked.\u00a0 \u201cDo you have a blog?\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0 Well, I am a historian who does in fact live in the past at times.\u00a0 \u201cI see dead people\u201d\u2013\u2013no, not ghosts (perhaps a … Continue reading