Columns

“Nothing gold can stay.” So wrote Robert Frost in 1923. That phrase haunted me Friday after I saw a small golden bird – a Wilson’s warbler – staggering across my lawn. I kept one eager cat away, so maybe that bird survived. There has been a rash of bird deaths recently, so many that both […]

For any new visitor inquiring about Carbondale and looking to learn about our town, I always point them towards the doors of the Thompson House Museum, which I think sets the perfect historical tone to learn about our community’s first settlers and pioneers—including Myron and Hattie Thompson, and their descendants. I can also point them […]

Never been much for superhero movies. I had some interest in Spiderman because Peter Parker is a teenager with real adolescent problems. Jack Nicholson’s creepy portrayal of the Joker made the first Batman movie worth watching. I don’t really have issues with fantasies, but the message all we need is champions with Herculean powers to […]

Yvon Chouinard’s favorite quote about entrepreneurship is “that to understand an entrepreneur, you should study a juvenile delinquent. They’re both saying “this sucks and I’m going to do it another way.” You have to break the rules and prove that your way works.” My entrepreneur spirit and naturalist’s mind have to ask, what really sucked […]

We’ve all been in a situation where someone made a racist joke or comment.  Remember how some people cheered on the joker by laughing? While others stood there awkwardly staring at their drink, and when someone did speak up they got told, “Oh, you have no sense of humor. It’s just a joke.”  Let’s face […]

Last month, for my 50th birthday, I got some great gifts, including an epiphany.  It happened in Aspen, where even the poodles forget their masks and have to run back before they can go into Starbucks. My epiphany had to do with historic milestones and significant life lessons, and goddess knows there are plenty of […]

White/Caucasian, Asian/Pacific Islander, Latino, African-American or Decline to State? At first, I responded to my new optometrist’s medical history form by checking that familiar first box: White/Caucasian. Moments later, that choice began to rankle. What relevance could one’s race have to double vision?  The issue wasn’t personal relevance. I suddenly wondered whether the checklist might […]

This summer it seems everyone packed up the family truckster and headed for Colorful Colorado… While I can’t blame them, it has caused me to experience some road rage.  Whether running errands around town or getting out into the wild, everywhere I go, there are humans in my way. On more than one occasion I […]

The cover of the issue of The Sun that appeared June 18, 2020 (Volume 12, Number 19), in solidarity with marginalized people of color across this nation boldly read “I Can’t Breathe”.  It was adorned with photos of Black Lives Matter protests that took place in town in support of communities of color across the […]

Every Roaring Fork Valley town (except Carbondale) has at some point changed its name: Glenwood Springs was once Defiance. Basalt was Aspen Junction. Aspen was Ute City.  What’s in a name, usually, is history. Which is usually written by the victors, then revisited as times change. As they are now.  Across the nation and here […]