A few weeks ago I went out for a nice long, slow run on a Saturday morning. I think everyone else in the city was sleeping in so I had the streets mostly to myself. We have had record rainfall in our part of the Mitten State so the grass and growing things are lush. There was a beautiful fragrance of life in the morning air. Lilacs were in bloom as I ran along the margin of a large estate. The moisture of morning …

May 17th Dad (Kenneth F. Pierpont) turned 70. We all gathered at my brother’s home in Kalamazoo for a beautiful evening in honor of Dad.

Lois and I on a Spring Evening

When Bud and Charlotte were young there was something missing in their lives and they didn’t know what it was. They sometimes left their three small children alone at night and went out dancing and drinking. Eventually they separated and then divorced. Charlotte had a man friend.

Plastic pink flamingoes, you must have seen them. They are ubiquitous. Standing in various shades of faded pink on one wire leg, unblinking sentries of the lawn. Are we to believe that these beautiful creatures of tropical climates have somehow migrated north and live as domestic pets in small towns all over the Midwest and in the suburbs of Chicago and Detroit and Cleveland? I have never liked them but compared to a real, live pink flamingo the synthetic imitation is especially pitiful.

It’s OK to own things but when things own you they lose their ability to bring joy. Sometimes you have to take unusual measures to keep things from taking over your life. Sheldon and Davy VanAuken knew that.

Sitting in the student center at grad school I was getting to know a new friend. We drank coffee and talked about our families. He slid a picture of his wife across the table. “She is lovely,” I said. He must have sensed that required an explanation.