Quite some time ago, I found one of your articles on Medium. Since I did not have time to read it, I bookmarked it. This week, I finally had some time and ended up spending two days reading your work and exploring the links you provided (which led me to more good stuff – so thank you again).
Reading is my favorite hobby, and I spent a good portion of my career conducting research. My specialty was rural land-use, rural development and cultural planning. I would have given a lot, to have read your work a long time ago.
These days, I lend my research skills to a network of people still engaged in this work. My next step is to figure out how to integrate what I’ve learned from you - then pass it on. By integrate, I mean put it in the context of American life. Put forth a new idea without context, and it can sour really fast. Put the same idea in the right context and people will eat it up like candy. This is time consuming work, and I will be returning to your pages many times.
My now grown children are engaged in similar work. As I said yesterday, my oldest daughter and I were discussing our recent Supreme Court decisions. She wondered if re-considering state’s rights from our perspective, might flip state’s rights into a healthy, viable solution. That’s when I mentioned your work. She emailed me a few minutes ago, to say she’d read a couple of your pieces and could see what I was talking about.
As I said, some things go viral and die. Other things go deep and live a very long time.
By the by, my grandfather was born and raised in Oslo. Until he was almost 80, the two of us hiked and backpacked through America and Canada. He also built his homes and taught all his descendants those skills. Those skills enabled our family to build homes, they never could have afforded to buy.
Right now, my kids are building their own homes, plus helping me build mine, on 60 acres of forest land here in Kentucky. We have one old home to finish restoring, and we’ll be working full time in the forest.
One last thing. Aeon is my favorite on-line magazine. I think your work belongs there and encourage you to check it out. :)
