The Walk

Georgia O'Keefe

My brother Barry was a big runner as I've told you, but he was also an epic walker.  He would walk miles each morning.  Since he died, I've taken to walking for a few hours each morning every day in the Barry tradition.  I roam and ramble all over Lyon. It's a delight of course.  Yesterday I checked out these houses that date from the 14th or 15th century.  I guess they're not sure. But does it really matter?  They're old.  That's all we need to know. 

As I walked in a southerly direction today, I listened to an Ezra Klein podcast.  He interviewed Nick Offerman.  Nick Offerman has a new book out.  He's written quite a few books and he makes furniture and he tries to live in a way that's respectful to the planet. He recommends that we read Wendell Berry's first book of short stories.  He also recommends Rebecca Solnit's Wanderlust:  A History of Walking. I must get these books. 

Down near a beautiful walking path along the Saone, I saw some trees had changed their colors to a bright yellow. I was far from them and I wondered if they were gingkoes.  They probably are because I've now read that gingkoes grow all over the globe.  Fun fact: gingkoes can live hundreds or even thousands of years. 

I finished a first draft of a short story today.  I've been working on it for weeks.  It's about a kid named Barton who goes to a data driven school.  The kids are reluctant to participate in a human data wall and Barton decides he's had enough with this school's weird ways.  If you have worked in schools these past few years, you know about data walls.  When I was a literacy coach, I did plenty of data driven activities that weren't my best memories of that job, but we resisted implementing data walls at my school.  Which was good because data walls are stupid and rude.

I'm going to revise this story using my 4 colors revision template that I made up awhile back.  Then I'm going to start on another short story which I think will be about a North American turtle in France who is trying to get back to the states.