I teach Cultural Geography at the university level, looking at the intersection points of people, culture, religion, politics, economics, and environment. I see our world as one great tapestry, about which I love following all the individual threads to see what set them off in a certain direction, what patterns the threads make when they come together, and how the tapestry is a living and breathing entity. I’d like to say I fully understand this planet of ours, but would be amiss if I made that claim. It’s a continuing puzzle, but I enjoy trying to follow the energetic threads.
Uighur Girls, Xinjiang, China
I help learners explore all of these dynamics, finding common threads and patterns while seeking newer paradigms to bring about change. I also enjoy taking the classroom “live” out into the field and do so each year by taking adult learners on cultural immersion trips around the world.
As a writer and photographer, I also enjoy doing what I can to capture a moment, an experience, the soul of another person in our global tapestry. This blogsite holds some of those stories and photos. Enjoy (and respect that all images and stories are copyrighted).
“Ten Thousand Cranes”
The words “ten thousand cranes” came to me through my dream space more than a decade ago. They repeated themselves to me for several days and left me pondering their significance. Then several days later, I found myself in Monte Vista, a small town on the western edge of the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado. The town lies at the mouth of the river valley canyon that holds the headwaters for the mighty Rio Grande River. The area, with its agricultural fields, multicultural mix, and mist-laden foothills of the San Juan Mountains, is magical. I pulled off the road on the outskirts of town early one morning in March. The mountains were dark, saturated with the previous night’s dusting of snow. A heavy mist draped over their tops while beams of sunlight broke through the clouds above. An indistinguishable background noise filled the crisp air. Then suddenly there was an explosion of activity. A flock of enormous birds lifted off the sleepy wetland ponds in a cacophony of sound and flurry. And soon, everywhere nearby came alive with the same activity. The Sandhill Cranes had migrated from New Mexico and were fattening themselves up in the wetlands and stubbled fields of Monte Vista before continuing on their journey north to Yellowstone or Canada. There were 20,000 of these magnificent birds who boast a wingspan of 6 feet and a body height of 4 to 5 feet. My dream words suddenly had meaning as I basked in the delightful aeronautical and terrestrial performances of these creatures. They are a sight worth witnessing, one of those experiences that reminds us of our connection to all that surrounds us.
Ten Thousand Cranes is about Re-Imagining the World … through travel, photography, writing, teaching, and other forms of exploration. In my childhood, my most coveted possession was a big, black accordion file. It became a miniature library and museum, all in one – housing magazine scraps, found items, maps, art, planetary charts, poems, etc. It was my inner seven-year-old’s effort at making sense of the world and the universe. It was where I stored my lecture materials for when I taught my stuffed animals about life’s magic.
When I put new material into one of the divider pouches, the new piece somehow infused and transformed the other material, such that when I pulled out something else, it would never fail to show me some fresh and exciting way of seeing the world. The people, landscapes, and stars would all reveal themselves to me in “re-imagined” ways.
So now I take my re-imagining seriously. I have helped thousands of university students re-imagine the world in my Cultural Geography classes, seeing all of the dynamics in totally new ways. Every time I travel, take a photograph, or write about landscapes around the world, I re-imagine what I have beheld — discovering new dynamics, new influences, new ways of seeing the old. When I see the boatman in China rowing his tiny sampan on the green waters of the Yangtze, I see not only the man in his pointed hat, but thousands of years of men on the river … just as I see the universal woman kneeling by her cookstove, tending the sheep, or weaving on her backstrap loom whenever I see any one woman doing the sorts of woman-tasks that have kept humanity growing throughout history. A glance at a mountain takes me deep into he earth before the mountain was thrust upward in a heaving of magma or uplift of the crust, just as a moment with the Andean child in his cracked and barren adobe schoolroom walls transports me simultaneously to children in classrooms all over the world throughout all times.
It is an omnipresent experience, gifting me with insights and knowing from millennia – wisdom perspectives from both the earthly and the divine.
It allows me to see beyond what lies in front of me and better understand the whole of creation. So these pages are about re-imagining – seeing the world, the universe, the magic of life in different ways. Enjoy. Re-imagine with me.