One of the best ways to Gain the Red Edge is to come home smelling like a campfire. That’s how we wrapped up our Labor Day, by building a campfire up Green Canyon here in Cache Valley and roasting hot dogs and s’mores over a campfire Leslie built with one match using wood that she chopped and supplied by a good friend Steven Amott. We hung out, talked and laughed, and played half a game of 3/13 under the lantern…
The primary mission of the National Guard is to provide aid at home “in time of domestic emergencies or need.” It’s easy to overlook this mission with all the combat deployments over since 2001. Blackhawk helicopter rescue crews from the Utah Army National Guard are already in Texas helping out. More Utah soldiers will most likely be called up to help as well. When National Guard or Reserve Component military personnel are called to duty, they often have very little…
SIREN’S FATAL SONG Societal walls Like prison feel Shackled tight Against my will. Mountain tops Prairies wild Explore I must My inner child. Bolting forth Wings now free Nothing bars What I can be. Rivers carry I need not oars My soul is light Freedom soars. Faster, stronger To the ledge My body flies Past the edge. I leap to escape My freedom to find Universal laws Will not bind. Soaring high Flying free Nothing stopping What I shall be….
My mother came to mind over the weekend as I remembered a tree we planted the year she passed away. We called it Grandma’s Tree. It was a little tree, barely as tall as my six feet, and not that thick. Unfortunately, it only survived a couple of years before a windstorm sheared it in half. The half-size shard of a tree remained in our yard for a season before we were able to totally remove it. The empty spot always seemed more…
I love the many great photos of the Monday’s solar eclipse. But after awhile they all tend to blur together. Even the really, really good ones! I appreciate the skill, talent and time of those who find a way to present this incredible event in a creative and fresh light. Or, in this case, a creative and fresh darkness! Greg Westbrook’s presentation does this. He shows all the phases of the eclipse in one shot, as many have done. But…
I lowered my American flag to half-mast the morning after Utah National Guard Soldier Staff Sergeant Aaron Butler was killed in Afghanistan. Butler was killed leading a 12 man team clearing a building when it exploded. The booby trap also wounded the other 11 team members, each one also a soldier with the Utah National Guard. I spent nearly 24 years with the Utah Army National Guard. Serving my country in uniform will always be one of the greatest honors…
Perspective, thoughtfully viewed with refreshed eyes after a season of toil and labor, will help us Gain the Red Edge by opening our mind and heart to the endless possibilities waiting to be gleaned and harvested.
In June of 1964, three civil rights workers were murdered by the KKK in Neshoba County, Mississippi, during the Civil Rights Movement. The three young men, Andrew Goodman and Michael “Mickey” Schwerner from New York City, and James Chaney from Meridian, Mississippi, had been working with the “Freedom Summer Campaign” attempting to register African Americans in Mississippi to vote. Forty-one years later, in 2005, Edgar Ray Killen was charged and eventually convicted for his part in the crimes. “MISSISSIPPI BURNING”…
HYPOTHESIS Recovering from a botched introduction is very difficult to do. This week I put that theory to test. RUNNING LATE The first Tuesday morning of each month is BizLink, the monthly networking group of the Cache Chamber of Commerce. I helped to start this group several years ago, along with Cam McCullough. I was the second chairman, and now I am the designated trainer. Last Tuesday morning I slept through my alarm. I woke up at 7:30 a.m., the exact…
A friend of mine challenged my labeling mowing my lawn as an “outdoor sport.” “Mowing the lawn is a chore,” they said. Continuing to validate their case, they said outdoor sports were things like mountain biking, canoeing, snowboarding, fishing, and hunting. “It’s all about perspective,” I countered. Mowing my lawn is never a chore. It’s a time to let my mind relax by doing something I totally love and connecting with nature in a very small way. It’s an incredible…