Al Bright, A Master's Piece, 1986, oil on canvas – Taubman Museum of Art - Roanoke, VA My initial plans were to go hiking in Virginia, but thunderstorms forced me to change them. The irony was finding inspiration about wide-open spaces within the enclosed space of an art museum. I had never been to Roanoke, Virginia before, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much history and culture the area offered. Visiting the Taubman Art Museum turned out to be a perfect, unexpected

As we recently celebrated 250 years of American history, I found myself reflecting on a book I picked up while hiking in Utah: John Wesley Powell’s The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons. I’ll admit, the first few chapters were hard to get through. Powell wrote like the scientist he was; precise barometer readings, detailed weather descriptions, notes on Indigenous history, and accounts of the survival and loss of his boats. Not much emotion, not much narrative

Holidays invite us to recognize, commemorate, and cherish what feels like a gift or a blessing. When I recently wrote about Mother’s Day, I explored how complex the holiday can be for many people. Now, we find ourselves at Father’s Day, which carries its own heavy significance. Relationships with father figures are rarely straightforward. They are a patchwork of shifting seasons, layered emotions, and vivid memories. As I researched the history of Father’s Day, I was struck b