North Cascades

Here's the link for a few pictures from our vacation. It was a fabulous time filled with uncertain weather, bear sightings, quiet reading, incredible beauty, lots of sleep, physical challenge, spiritual renewal, and even some very good food. I'm grateful that my wife introduced me to the backcountry so many years ago, and profoundly grateful that the two of us have both the health and enjoyment of the outdoors that enable us to continue! I would add that making the effort to travel light is increasingly worthwhile in direct proportion (or perhaps even exponentially porpotional) to one's age!

In another vein, if you're looking for some summer reading, try this link for a variety of what appear to be really good books. I can't say I've read them all (thankfully) but the selections I know are very good!

The discussion on the ethics series has been stimulating to say the least. There have been many great comments, some thoughtful dialogue, with a few instances of labelling being thrown in along the way. Regarding the labelling, I think it reveals how difficult clear communication is and how we all, in spite of our best efforts to the contrary, tend to interpret everything we receive through our own filters and biases, with the result that people draw different conclusions from the same collection of words. I can see from the responses that I'm viewed as both liberal and conservative, post-modern and fundamentalist. Perhaps we all need to drop these categories and extrapolations and simply continue to dialogue as those who know that Christ alone is the source and end of all truth, and therefore, all life as well.