Back in Paradise

Well, I survived my trip to Okinawa. Although I didn't get along too well with the local food and came to equate economy class overseas travel with Bush-era "rough interrogation" methods, it was all I hoped it would be and more. The dark side of the journey was the shadow of the Massey mine disaster that occurred shortly after I got there.

But even the awaiting bad news couldn't completely overpower the sheer beauty of April in West Virginia. During the time I was away, the redbuds, lilac and wisteria bloomed like madness. I loved the hard karate training in the Budokan and in the private dojo in Naha but love the holler I live in and the various creatures that inhabit it, human and otherwise, more.

To live in West Virginia and to work on social justice issues (sorry, Mr. Beck) is always to be engaged in some kind of the strife that the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus regarded as "the father of all things." But it also is to be surrounded by natural splendor and social richness.

So here's to the beauty and the fight. Game on!