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I've always enjoyed reading articles and books by the Dalai Lama. He is a model for leaders everywhere, and I find his ideas so intriguing. I just finished reading his new book Voice For The Voiceless. It was interesting to read his account of the Chinese invasion of Tibet and his fleeing, as a teenage leader of a country, into exile in India. I also enjoyed reading about his discussion of the role of the Dalai Lama and how it has changed in a modern, global world. He has delegated much of the traditional responsibility to others, a wise move given his age and his situation in the world. He has yet to revisit Tibet even after more than sixty years in exile, but the Tibetan people still love him and the respect he commands around the world is immense.
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Earlier I wrote that Big River Magazine had accepted an article of mine about boating on Lake Pepin. I have written another article for them about the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization headquartered in Northeast Minneapolis. They are working on multiple projects to help clean up the water in the Mississippi River and to improve drainage to the river in an urban setting. Their work is impressive. That article and photos, along with the piece on Lake Pepin are both scheduled for the July/August issue of Big River. I'm very excited about both of these articles.
When Wayne Gretzky broke Gordie Howe's NHL scoring record and then set new marks so high no one could believe them, I assumed that would be a record for the ages. It took some 30 years, but today, Alex Ovechkin broke Gretzky's record. I never thought I would see that happen. Amazing.
Big River Magazine has accepted my essay about our experiences boating on Lake Pepin for six summers. It will be published in the July/August issue along with several photos. We spent many enjoyable afternoons on Lake Pepin, the largest lake formed by the Mississippi River, and have wonderful memories of reading and resting, of eagles and pelicans and seagulls, or floating on calm water beneath fluffy clouds. I look forward to seeing the article in Big River.
Minnesota is called The State of Hockey, and it is never more apparent than during the second week of March when the boys High School State Hockey Tournament takes place in Xcel Energy Arena where the Minnesota Wild of the NHL play their games. I can't imagine how those high school kids feel when they get to skate in front of 20,000 fans in that spectacular arena. The tournament showcases many players who will go on to play college and pro hockey. It is four days of excitement and all the games are televised locally. It is an amazing spectacle.
Earlier I talked about two articles I had written for Big River Magazine. One if about the Fifth Principal Meridian and how property lines as far away as Minnesota and North Dakota are measured from a spot in the middle of a swamp in Arkansas. That point is now part of Louisiana Purchase State Park. The second article is about the failure of the Rapidan Dam near Mankato, Minnesota, and the massive amount of sediment that was released when the dam was breached last June. Both of those articles were published today in the March/April issue of Big River.
It has been a low snow winter, the same as last year, so skiing on the trails in Minnesota has been minimal. Today, however, my friend Bruce Ause and I went out on Wacouta Bay, a backwater of the Mississippi River, and had a beautiful day of skiing. We skied past an abandoned beaver lodge that stands nearly ten feet tall, and as we were coming back across the bay, three coyotes raced across in front of us. An excellent day of skiing.
My uncle Wayne J. Gardiner has published a novel and many short stories over the years. He just published a new short story today in the Saturday Evening Post online edition. It is called "Night Train" and features an interesting plot with a clever ending. You can read it here.
In June, the Rapidan Dam near Mankato, Minnesota, partially failed and millions of cubic yards of sediment trapped behind the dam for a century flowed into the Minnesota River. The effects of this dam breach won't be known for months or years, but it already forced a closure of the navigation channel in Savage in September and the Army Corps of Engineers had to remove three times the amount of sediment that they normally remove in a year. Big River Magazine called me and asked me to write an article about this. I submitted that article this week and it will appear in their March-April issue along with the Fifth Principal Meridian article I discussed earlier.
In October I took a writing class from Narratively Academy. It was called 30 Days - 30 Prompts. The teacher, Amy Barnes, a reader for Narratively magazine, sent out a prompt every morning for the month and we responded with 500 words and then responded to each other's work. I took the class for one reason - I wanted to get inspired to write regularly again and it worked. I wrote to all thirty prompts during class and kept the momentum going. Several of the 500 word prompt responses have now become longer, fuller essays, and a lot of ideas that have been hanging around in my mind and notebooks have now found their way to at least rough draft stage. I have more essays submitted to magazines and literary reviews now than I have had in at least two years. It feels good to be back in the cycle and sending out pieces and getting responses.
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Photo by John Jancik
AuthorDr. Steve Gardiner is the author of nine books and over 1,000 articles. |