“Real living is living for others.”
“Relationship is a process of self evaluation and self revelation. Relationship is the mirror in which you discover yourself – to be is to be related.”
— Bruce Lee
a small paper for a small planet

The river gurgled next to him, spilling over its bank and sinking into the sand beneath glistening twigs and pine needles. He looked back at its bend and watched ripples gallop like horses down the stretch. With water flowing in from the ocean, however, it gave the curious perception of fast flowing waves standing still.

“Having visited the Fairy Glen in Betws-y-Coed, Wales, I can tell you that places which claim fairies and their kin don’t seem out of the question. Certain places have that magical feel, as if they transcend what we know of life and reach beyond it into other realms. As for fantasy reaching nonfiction best-seller lists, I always tell attendees at conventions and festivals that I write nonfiction about elves.”

The first time I heard the opening banjo notes of The Rainbow Connection coming from a frog on a stump in the swamp, I was ten years old and sitting transfixed in the old Admiral Theater in Bremerton, Washington, watching The Muppet Movie. That was a palace with its marquee rimmed by lightning-trapped bulbs, a real ticket booth, a slanted hall with cavernous ceilings, balcony, and cushioned seats. [Read More]

One of the things that most puzzles me about the “pro-life” crowd is that these are the same people who choose to ignore the obvious daily evidence of global warming, the extinction of 200 species a day, the turning of our oceans into carbonic acid to the detriment of all sea life. Just what kind of world do the “pro-lifers” expect to be bringing all these babies with rights from the moment of conception into?

On Tuesday, Encyclopedia Britannica announced that it would no longer be printing its encyclopedias, but will only be offering its thousands of articles through computer or iPad app. While I have nothing against the electronic versions, they can never replace the feel of the actual books as I grasp them carefully by the spine to take them off the shelf and open their covers to find the universe contained within.

“It was shocking, surreal, and disturbing to me personally to see a member of my family, Chief Coboway, being referred to as a member of another tribe with no mention of the Clatsop tribe he belonged to,” writes Stowe. “The entire tribe is very unhappy with this effort to erase our tribal heritage, and is determined to put an end to this misinformation and get the true story published.”
When you stand next to the sea, you don’t feel big. You don’t feel important, or worthwhile, or even human. You feel like a small speck on a scale so large your presence isn’t even registered. At first this was a comfort. To feel like nothing, like your mistakes and your life are just soaring under the radar, unessential. But today it felt infuriating. Like the voice so caught in my throat, or the words along with that voice.
I was in bed last night, reading a book I bought from this teeny little bookstore I couldn’t remember the name of, despite having just been there hours before. As I was doing this, a little card fell out. Jupiter’s Rare & Used Books, right! That place. And I was thinking how badly I would rather be there than here (Vancouver, WA) at the moment.
P.O. Box 1096
Cannon Beach, OR 97110
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