I’m reading a beautiful book. A beautiful book.

Does a teacher facing students, jazz group improvising, swimmer doing workouts, coder fixing software, thinker seeking solace seem safety prone to you? Are these the risk-averse?

Might activists be poster-folk for the risk-willing? They march for justice, take stands, venture into parts unknown, right? 

And do they also pay attention to what works v. what may backfire, waste time, disillusion volunteers? Do they follow best practice like the blandest nine to fiver?

‘You’ve internalized, Bob Dylan - his spirit comes right through and we all feel it,’ says a Dylan fan gesturing toward rows of chairs recently filled with hushed listeners AKA noisy clappers in Fairview Park’s Meeting Room A.

Libraries, we are told, are no longer meant to be quiet zones.

There's not enough value on the web for the artist to spend much precious time there. Information is useful in context, interpreted, magnified by understanding. Wouldn't a writer be better off in a wireless cottage, sequencing ideas dug out of mad interior play?

Michael Chabon. 

I pictured you a lumbering older man with wide, surprisingly nimble fingers I’ve seen on guitar players from time to time. I thought you’d be a little arrogant, just the kind who suffers no fool gladly but suffers the children to come unto him. I considered this a plus. 

by Chris Mosby, News Sun reporter

CLEVELAND (January 31, 2013) It’s a common experience. Most of us go through it. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, about half of all school-aged children reported feeling bullied at some point in their academic career. About ten percent of those kids said they were tormented regularly.

When Dad showed me the program from his brother Ted’s funeral, I was about to ask him if he had a favorite hymn or two he’d like us to sing at his memorial. But I brushed aside my curiosity and strong organizational bent because there never seems to be a good time to imagine a world where your dear father is no longer here in the flesh. 

Muscle and Bone ventured out on slick and splattery I-480 last night with a car full of gear, heads full of lyrics and shoulders taut with wonder. As in, ‘wonder if anybody’ll show up?’

(Bob Dylan’s) uncanny relevance comes from reaching as deep into empathy as he can. -- Kurt Gegenhuber

By Scott Mahoney
Oberlin News-Tribune