Absolute Relativism

In my short 9 years of teaching I have learned more from students than they have ever learned from me and this week proved to be no different from any other. Recently I had a student ask me, “Mr. Herron, are you a liberal?” It was an honest question so I thought that it deserved an honest response, and when students ask you personal questions it’s usually because they find you to be an odd representation of the adult world that they have come to know and are inadvertently doing some field work.

A Poem: On Braggarts

My friend, Seth Haines (@sethhaines) challenged his readers to write a poem constructed from an article or the like by taking, in a most post-modern way, the words out of context, adding a few of your own and creating a poem of sorts. I’m not a poet at all but I love the challenge and I love his idea, so here it goes! I didn’t do it exactly as Seth prescribed but since the rubric requires a decontextualizing of sorts I figured that I had the freedom to change it up a bit. The premise is there anyway. The photo is of the article from The Wall Street Journal online and it was written by Elizabeth Bernstein…

A Poem: On Braggarts

Kingdom of Reconciliation

You don’t have to read many news headlines or watch too many news clips to see that the world has its struggles. It seems that more often than not bad news trumps good news. For whatever reason we genuinely are attracted to news that has us gripped or concerned. As a friend of mine (@mikerusch) tweeted the other day, “fear is a tragic and powerful motivator”.

I have a hard time with general negativity,

A Land to Till

Seven years prior was my first year.  Three feet of snow on the ground and a December wind owned the landscape on all 3000 acres.  It was estimated that the pheasant population in South Dakota was around 12,000,000 birds that year…a healthy harvest was inevitable.  At three birds a day each, we found our limit easily, despite an unfriendly terrain and unwelcome weather.  And as the sun set on the first day I grasped at time trying to soak in the seemingly endless horizon, the smell of agriculture, the piles of corn, the thousand cattle on a thousand hills, the brotherhood and the beauty of creation.  A creation like I’ve never experienced before.

Now in November, our pursuits find warmer temperatures and friendlier skies.

His name is Oakley Edie.