Once upon a time, there was a couple. They had three kids and a good life. He made his living as an accountant and she was a doctor, but their real dream was to live on a ranch and breed dogs. One day, my wife Kim suggested they do that. The woman laughed. "It's not possible," she said. And so they didn't. The end. This is a true story, and similar stories just like it are lived out every day. Of course, the woman was wrong about it not being possible. Oh, she gave a list of reasons, but none of them made the option impossible. Risky, perhaps, or unconventional, or …
You & Improved
Ghosts In The Road
It was like driving through a sea of black ink. The trip back to our hotel from the Lamar Valley was harrowing. It being Yellowstone, the specter of animals hanging out on the road is always a possibility. We'd reveled in the wildlife of the North American Serengeti, but now the sun was gone and darkness blanketed the winding way home. My knuckles were white on the steering wheel and Kim's clear anxiety was less than helpful. We snaked around curve after curve, my eyes peeled for any signs of movement. Then we saw it: a small coyote trotting down the middle of the road. As we came upon …
Love Is In The Air
This painting is called "Love is in the Air." Our eyes draw us to the billowing steam from the geyser forming the shape of a heart. Indeed, it is a fitting representation of the way most of our society views love. Like the steam, it is a little mysterious, always changing, and dependent on which way the wind is blowing. Love is regarded as a fleeting feeling evident on a wedding day but which vanishes at some point in the ensuing years when life gets hard. I would like to invite us to look for a different, better metaphor for true love in this painting. Like the bison. The bison …
Not a Morning Person
Do elk have the choice of being a morning person? Are there some elk, hidden away in the woods, "sleeping in?" Some who stayed up late contemplating the universe, or were up all night partying with other woodland creatures? Alas, I assume that elk are wired the way they are wired, and they don't have the choice of whether they are a night elk or a morning elk. No, but we do. I used to be a night person. I rolled my eyes at the people who annoyingly championed the virtue of early rising. I loved staying up to work on art when the world was quiet. I'd go to bed way past midnight and …
Chocolate Moose
Our family didn't go to Yellowstone to see moose, specifically. We went for the scenery, and we did want to see as much wildlife as possible. One afternoon, we settled into a nice spot in the shadow of the Grand Tetons called Schwabacher Landing, and waited for moose. We'd heard the odds of seeing them there were good. Very quietly, we waited, and waited, and waited. It felt like any moment one might emerge from the brush to steal a drink from the pond. We sat for two hours before admitting defeat and heading back to the hotel, disappointed. The next day, while in Jackson, we wandered …
Big & Grand
Everything that exists first started as an idea. A vision. A dream. The question is, How many people have to see it before it becomes reality? On a family trip west, we spent time in the foothills of the Grand Tetons hoping to see moose. We didn't have any luck, but while we were waiting, I snapped a photo of my youngest daughter sitting at the edge of the pond, tossing pebbles into the water. I thought it might be the start of a great painting. The only question in my mind was, "What might she be looking at?" I imagined painting a moose into the scene, maybe a huge one. I thought …
Bantha Crossing
Kim and I grew up in small towns. Occasionally, a train would pass through, blocking a road and putting traffic at a standstill. This was incredibly inconvenient when you were already running five minutes late. Sometimes you could backtrack and take an alternative route, but most of the time you had no choice but to wait. And wait. And wait. It's one of the most annoying things ever. Not once did I ever see anyone take a photo of the train. Things work differently in Yellowstone National Park. People get super excited about traffic stoppages. You might even say they hope for …
Reality Check
The Grand Prismatic is one of the things I was most looking forward to seeing on our family trip to Yellowstone National Park. It's like I had to see it to believe it was real. This is not an uncommon sentiment when it comes to this magical place. The early explorers who came back with stories from Yellowstone were written off as crazy people. Surely a loose screw, an overindulgence in booze, or insanity caused by being alone for too long was easier to believe than the tall tales that returned. Upside-down waterfalls? Boiling rivers? Bubbling mud? Twenty-foot beasts? Please. Well, …
Lessons from Wondernite
Our fifth Wondernite is in the books. Between that and the Wonder & Whimsy Society Family Reunion we hosted in our backyard the day after, I'm still in introvert recharge mode. I recently discovered that as an Enneagram 5 wing 4, my internal battery is like that of a ten-year-old smartphone: it's not capable of ever achieving a full charge, and it drains really fast, especially if it's doing processor-intensive tasks, like streaming video, or, you know, hosting back-to-back live events with hundreds of people. This week I thought I'd share some thoughts and lessons …
How Many Crayons?
How many crayons do you need to make a masterpiece? If you are judging by how many they give you with the kid's menu at a restaurant, apparently the answer is often...two. Back in the day, a box of 64 Crayola crayons — complete with a sharpener in the back — was as valuable as anything on earth. It contained every color known to mankind (who even knew there was such a color as periwinkle?!), including silver and gold, which I'm convinced was made with real bits of the precious metals. A box of 64 crayons turned anyone into an artist. Everything was possible; there was nothing you …