There’s no use in sugar-coating it: I can’t go to church services anymore. When an acquaintance died a couple years ago—a warm, funny and open-minded man—I thought we were right to go to his funeral. I was raised Catholic, after…
Consider, for a moment, the horse. Your average horse is still a romantic figure, evoking a rich historical relationship of labor, war, and transport. Horses made the journey across the Oregon Trail. Horses marched into battle, and lay among the…
I’ve always liked to think that I have pretty decent luck. But it turns out that everyone has good luck until, suddenly, they don’t. On April 17th, I was on a camping trip with my husband, Jim, when I received…
I know the drive back home intimately. Coming from any direction, the Black Hills are a forested island, rising out of the dust-sea of plains. The hills are old and carry all the legends of old age. Harney Peak, where…
When I was a kid, I heard about my imagination constantly from adults–”What an imagination you have!” “Did that all happen in your imagination?” “Don’t worry. That’s just your imagination.” Sometimes these were meant as compliments. Sometimes they clearly were…
First, I couldn’t find my sunglasses. We were headed out the door. Jim was halfway to the car, and I suddenly realized I couldn’t find them. They weren’t on their normal perch with the car keys in the kitchen, not…
Lately, I’ve been thinking about St. Louis. It was surprising how long the news lingered on that Midwestern city this summer, after the shooting of Michael Brown. Surprising that we all lingered there, as a country, for a span of…
I am so sick of 2016. It’s two years away yet, but the Cable News talking heads and internet political forecasters just will not keep their Presidential predictions at bay. Regardless of the midterm elections this Fall, the crumbling Domestic…
It should shock no one that, when I was in school, I often fought with my professors. I was raised by parents who taught me to trust my internal logic, and so when anyone, even authority figures, told me something…
Well, it’s the 25 year anniversary of the Zephyr, and it’s been difficult for me to think of something to write this issue. I feel unqualified, as you might imagine, to write about the long history of the paper, since…