Long before you catch sight of the diminutive Thai woman, you’ll hear her voice — loud, strong, a touch of carnival barker in the undertones and leavened with laughter. “Come in, come in, come in — please, sit anywhere,” is heard from the depths of the kitchen. And you obey.
Read More →Have you noticed that the topic of weather is the great equalizer that turns us all into Iowa farmers this time of year? You can be the librarian at the Downtown Library, a CEO at Nationwide or a checker at Hy-Vee, and out of your mouth will come these words:
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Posted February 13, 2013in Joe's Neighborhood
The class is soon to begin. Chairs shuffle, winter coats are thrown to the side, note pads and laptops are carefully balanced on the 12-inches-of-polished-wood for a desk, and low conversation floats through the room. Cell phones are turned off or carefully hidden just out of sight. Murmurs, coughs and
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Posted February 06, 2013in Joe's Neighborhood, Recent Posts
It is a fairly serious time, and we are fairly serious folks dealing with fairly serious issues: guns, mental health, economic disaster, global warming, war, Michelle’s bangs. It feels a bit like that time when you had to babysit your younger brother and younger sister. Your folks were gone, you
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Posted January 30, 2013in Joe's Neighborhood, Recent Posts
Do you remember “The Elves and the Shoemaker” by the Brothers Grimm? You know, a typical redemption story — great guy, good worker, family man, not enough food, one last piece of leather, and, voila, new leather shoes appear that are made by elves. Magical, little people save the family
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Posted January 23, 2013in Joe's Neighborhood, Recent Posts
Really? They tell me that you’re on your high horse about the recent visit of the Monster Trucks to Des Moines. Your artistic nose is out of joint at all the noise and the dirt and the craziness. You’re wondering how an over-sized truck can possibly have one admirer let
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Posted January 16, 2013in Joe's Neighborhood, Recent Posts
Truth is hard to come by it seems. What we see is shaped by so many factors that have nothing to do with what is actually in front of us. The problem ranges from an actual blind spot in our eye to the mind’s technique of filling in what we
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Posted January 09, 2013in Joe's Neighborhood, Recent Posts
To look at the world out of 18-year-old eyes brings a certain clarity to the landscape, a certain freshness to encounters. Every day is literally a new day, because you haven’t experienced that many days as an adult. When you’re 18, relationships are budding, flowering or blossoming. “Withering on the
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Posted January 02, 2013in Joe's Neighborhood, Recent Posts
OK, it is the dark and dreary days of January with the bulk of winter ahead of us. I know what you’re thinking. Yup, I overheard your conversation. You’re beginning again to lay out your crazy theory of Des Moines as a rest stop, aren’t you? You know what I
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Posted December 26, 2012in Joe's Neighborhood, Recent Posts
He was an old man when I lived with him years ago. But I suspect this was his pattern even as a young farmer. Up early in the kitchen. Mandatory dress of union suit, ironed pants and dangling suspenders. Two white bowls placed on the table. No one washed. No
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