A Walker's Journal

Matters of the heart.

2012-02-13T12:12:00.000-08:00

Antique Valentine, 1909

We don't really celebrate Valentine's Day so much as use it to remind ourselves that February 15th is our wedding anniversary.

We had a reasonably unconventional wedding. Leroy and I were married by a judge at the county courthouse in Hannibal, Missouri, birthplace of Mark Twain. His beard was commented upon positively by the judge and his staff -- turns out the city was celebrating its sesquicentennial by having all the men grow beards. Afterward, we drove to St. Louis to see its famous arches. By the time we reached St. Louis, we were in near blizzard conditions, so we had hot dogs in a place not unlike Seattle's Frankfurter, then got back in the car and drove back north.

Our marriage certificate burned up in a house fire in Rochester, New York five years later. That certificate didn't have much to do with how connected we felt then or now, nor do the outward trappings of Valentine's Day. Each year, though, we raise our glasses over a festive dinner on the 15th with dear friends, the Adams, to celebrate our anniversary, Hazard's birthday, and over 30 years of friendship.

I should also point out that, though it was not a consideration in selecting our wedding date, it's easier to book a table on the night after Valentine's Day.

Breaking up is hard to do.

2012-02-01T11:01:00.000-08:00

2008 Opening Ceremonies: Carrying the "Victories" Flag

Some of you may know that I started this blog in 2006, as I started to train for my first 3Day Walk for the Cure, sponsored by the Komen Foundation. I'm not myself a survivor, but I was drawn to the cause by my friend Jenny. I made many friends from the six months of training as part of the Kindred Spirits team in 2007 and 2008, and from the two 3Day events as well. There is simply no other event that makes you feel a part of a cause larger than yourself, where participation requires a lot of training, and where it's clear that you are doing good.

I've continued to go out and cheer my Kindred Spirits team at each subsequent event, and make personal and business donations to Komen and the team. My estimate is that I've raised over $50,000 since I started to focus on the issue of early detection and screenings for breast cancer. When I asked for donations, I always mentioned that it was for research that benefited not only breast cancer, but other forms of cancer as well; and that it supported screenings for women who could not otherwise afford them. The millions of dollars raised here in Seattle alone have meant that the incidence of death from breast cancer has gone down significantly because of early detection and regular screenings.

Komen's decision to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood clinics who offer these screenings is difficult for me on several fronts. I find that I can't overlook the bitter politics involved in Komen's revised policy on grants. The bottom line is that it means that I will direct my personal and business support for breast cancer to Planned Parenthood, specifically so that these screenings can still be made available to low income women.

The decision is personally painful to me because not supporting Komen means I won't be making donations to the Kindred Spirits team. There's a minimum amount that each walker is required to raise before they can participate in the 3 Day, and it's been difficult for many of them in the economic climate of the past several years for them to hit their minimum. I know that the event is compelling from a personal perspective. Strong friendships have been made over the years. My admiration and personal concern for each of you who will continue to walk is unchanged.

London, Paris, New York and DC

2012-01-28T12:40:00.000-08:00

I read a review of a new exhibition at the Contemporary Turner gallery in London, and it made me want to find a British client so that I could spend a week revisiting museums, libraries and galleries in that city. Ideally, I'd then spend another week in Paris, doing the same thing. Because of the underground transportation systems, both cities are eminently walkable.

But I'm lucky enough to already have planned a trip to the East Coast in late February. I'll be in New York City for meetings and a global risk conference, then take the train south to Washington DC for more meetings. I'm going to build museum time into these visits, in particular for the renovated Islamic and American galleries at the Metropolitan, the Diego Rivera exhibition at MOMA, and for the Callahan photography exhibit at the National Gallery.

I am happy that my life and work integrate such that I can plan such treats for the eye and for the spirit.

" The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice."

2012-01-15T17:52:00.000-08:00

As this year's holiday rolls around, I worry that the moral arc is shaky. I cannot remember a time when there has been such blatant racism in national discourse, and when the rhetoric has been so unpromising, especially from pious-sounding candidates who call our president "un-patriotic." We've seen times like this before, where the racism was more overt than polite. Until the last few years, we might have thought that things have improved in this country where racism is concerned.

So I went back to take a look at the original quotation. Dr. King often paraphrased the fuller quotation from Theodore Parker, who wrote it in the 1850s.

"I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice."

It's been a long time since Dr. King was assassinated. Let's hope that arc is truly bending toward justice.

Winter holiday

2012-01-11T17:24:00.000-08:00

James & Jackie at Left Bank Books

So much to see!

This is one of James favorite haunts from days of old. The mime was a bonus.

Most frequently photographed place in Seattle, I think.

At the Olympic Sculpture Park inside Richard Serra's amazing sculpture(s).

Dinner for Modern Language Association colleagues.

Leroy of course cooked salmon.

James spoke on a panel at the conference. He's the one in his red union shirt.

James can cook also. Here he is making us risotto with beets and butternut squash.

We also visited Volunteer Park to show Jackie the view through Nagouchi's "Black Sun."

New year, new circle

2012-01-01T12:33:00.000-08:00

I was lucky enough to take part in the very first "Reboot Your Life" weekend retreat offered by The Sabbatical Sisters. I was on the second leg of my train trip around the country, arriving in Santa Fe from Los Angeles. Eight of us converged on Cathy Allen's beautiful home for a wide variety of discussions and exercises designed to make us rethink the use of our time.

One of the most interesting exercises is to set goals once a year that are achievable, and then take a look at the end of the year to see how you have done. You can read exactly how to undertake the "goals circle exercise" in the book written by the four Sabbatical Sisters -- Catherine Allen, Nancy Bearg, Rita Foley, and Jaye Smith -- titled Reboot Your Life: Energize Your Career & Life by Taking a Break available on Amazon. com.

This exercise is in the chapter titled "Living the Lifelong Sabbatical."

Since 2009, I've taken New Year's Day to look at last year's circle and then to make adjustments when I make a new one, often because I've learned something about myself from the review. Here's how you would proceed:

Make a circle and divide it into six to eight pie slices, which you then label with aspects of your life. I use six slices, and they are labeled health, creativity, books, financial, career, and personal.
The next step is to identify five goals for the new year in each category. This can take longer than one sitting; and indeed you'll find that some of the pie slices change from year to year because of projects you might undertake. Once you've completed this portion of the exercise, then pick out the goal in each category that is most important to you. Make a new circle with only a single goal in each slice, and keep it with you to remind yourself and review progress during the year.

All of the slices are designed to have equal weight so that you have begun to balance your time more evenly across these aspects of life.

How did I do in 2011? I can see now that I have actually blended a couple of slices: somehow "publish the personal safety book" is part of the career slice as much as it is in its own books slice. Creativity got exercised in its own slice through photography, this blog and gardening. The personal and health and financial slices each show movement toward the type of balance I'm working on. Career is the one still giving me the most challenge, as I experiment with multiple roles, adding still another this spring when I teach an operational risk course at the University of Washington.

Those of you who have never made a circle and divided it evenly in a deliberate attempt to rebalance your life might want to give it a try. There's a certain lightness of spirit that comes from this exercise year after year.

Happy New Year and new circle!

Sweet Baby James

2011-12-17T18:46:00.000-08:00

Had it not been for a good friend who passed along hand-me-downs from her two beautifully dressed sons, James would not have been so appropriately dressed in green velour with red striped socks. He was born in mid-November so he would have been a little more than a year old when this photo with Santa was taken. Then, as now, he displays great interest in something outside himself.

I'm only now starting to pull out holiday decorations like this photo. Any other year, this would have been the date of our annual open house. But I've still got plenty of time. We've postponed that event until James and his friend Jackie are here to join us, the week after Christmas. I can't wait.

Work and Life: Additional Thanks

2011-12-01T09:05:00.001-08:00

At its best, the work you do allows you to have a life, to nuture your small talents and to increase your bandwidth. Without role models and mentors who show you how it's done, it's a lot harder to keep growing.

On my risk detective blog this morning, I thanked those who helped to make my new book possible. I mentioned three men no longer with us who had a profound influence on how I turned out and what I know -- the poet George Starbuck, for whom I worked at the Iowa Writers Workshop; the mastermind Ewen Dingwall ("Ding") who directed Seattle's World Fair and its presentation of the King Tut exhibit, where I was lucky enough to run the public affairs office; and arts patron and philanthropist Bagley Wright, for whom I worked at the Seattle Art Museum when he was interim director. I mentioned those three extraordinarily generous men because they each taught me lessons about professional intensity and personal grace.

Here, I'd like to mention a few others who taught me other important lessons over the years. First would be my father, who taught me how to argue either side of a case. My most significant teacher was at Buffalo Center High School -- Loren Larson, who taught music, voice, literature and an after-school classics course for those of us who were interested. Next would be my cousin Kay Knipe, whose professional career spanned Chicago and New York as I grew up, and who showed me that women could be heard at the highest levels. There's Kathryn Salyer Starbuck, who ran the anti-poverty program I worked for straight out of college and who taught me the foundational pieces around professional office behavior and practice. And then later, Nathan and Joan Lyons at Visual Studies Workshop, who created a program with genuine content that operated both inside and outside the box.

In Seattle, there have been no shortage of mentors and role models. First, John Blaine, former director of the Seattle Arts Commission. For time at the museum, both Bagley and Ding. From Delphi days, women like Phyllis Campbell, then CEO of U.S. Bank. From Washington Mutual, ethical executives like Bill Longbrake and Jim Vanasek.

From the banking years and my current practice, the six mentors whom I asked to review my book for publication: Cathy Allen, CEO of The Santa Fe Group; Pete O'Dell, CEO of Swan Island Networks; Brian Tishuk, Executive Director of ChicagoFIRST; Bill Raisch of New York University; Kevin Desouza, now Director of The Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech; and Al Martinez-Fonts, now with the U.S. Chamber, but earlier the Assistant Secretary for the Private Sector at DHS.

I am sure I have inadvertently left people off this list, but hope that you get the idea. I'm aware that I owe a lot to many people.

Giving Thanks 2011

2011-11-23T15:58:00.001-08:00

Several friends started on November 1, to list one thing each day that they were grateful for on the run up to Thanksgiving. My list would be longer if I had considered it over a longer period of time. Here's today's high level list for which I give thanks daily, but especially tomorrow.

How Things Worked Out -- 42 years with the same man, never bored, often surprised.
Family -- three now grown children, and their children, each making a difference in the world every day.
Velocity -- that all five senses continue to work at the usual speed.
Place -- lucky enough to have a home that is just right.
Friends-- full throated thanks to those friends through time that I have found along the way.
Dreams -- I was raised to believe I could do anything. So I have followed my dreams.
Community -- You always get back more than you give.
My Work-- that I get up every day and do what I love.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families.

The perils of two blogs.

2011-11-17T10:59:00.001-08:00

I'm in the midst of my annual bronchitis episode and in Day #2 of prednisone treatment. I just wrote two blog pieces for my other blog, so am hoping you won't mind looking there for an update of my recent adventures.

Where is our daydreaming time?

2011-11-07T11:31:00.000-08:00

I found this clipping to post to my home town Facebook site -- and got a comment back from an old friend asking why we don't have more time anymore to daydream or just pretend. I think she was talking primarily about over-programmed children, but it got me thinking about how most of us fill every moment of our waking adult time with lists, and then produce the list on a site like Facebook as evidence of accomplishments.

In the photo, we are playing dress-up in a playhouse on my Uncle Jim's farm, built for us by his son and my cousin, Jim Hayes. It must have been a Sunday afternoon or my sister would not have been so dressed up. We loved going to the farm, and then on out into the grove, which held pets' graves as well as the playhouse. No one bothered us there, and we constructed elaborate scenarios and characters for ourselves.

A couple of years ago I set myself some goals that were designed to give me time to refresh and renew my spirit: I only read email twice a day on the weekends. I schedule my personal training in the gym and my yoga class on my business calendar. And I leave large chunks of time, usually in the evening, so that I can do exactly nothing. That's right, nothing. Not watching TV, not catching up on business reading, or indulging in a detective novel. Nothing. Nada. Just quiet time for my mind and spirit, ironing out the day's kinks.

Sort of like being back out in the playhouse. And still dreaming big.

Think where mans glory most begins and ends, and say my glory was I had such friends. -- Wm. Butler Yeats

2011-10-18T14:40:00.000-07:00

Faith and Jenny, Summer of 2011

Faith Sinanan died late this morning after taking on death her way. Trying to remember dates, I believe that Faith was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006. She walked 60 miles with the Kindred Spirits team for the September 2007 3 Day Walk. Though my good friend Jenny had talked about her for years, that's where I got to know her.

Until this morning, she was a survivor -- but this past year or so cannot have been easy as she underwent additional treatments for cancer that had metastasized into her brain. She underwent the famous gamma knife surgery twice. Jenny was her diarist the last several years, so that all her friends could keep up to date with the travels and deliberate decisions of a truly free spirit while she continued to live life on her own terms.

No one wishes a cancer patient to live in pain or sorrow. Faith made her plans in a deliberate way and enjoyed life to the fullest while she could, including all the support and good times from her cousin Jenny. Jenny posted this entry around noon today.

Faith drew her final breath at 11:15 this morning in the same room where she gave birth to Viyda 22 years ago this week. Gladys and Viyda were with her and her dear friends Sheila and Joan, and of course Bindi (meow) and Gracie (woof). It is a clear sunny day here in Seattle with brilliant blue skies. A pair of red-tailed hawks are circling our yard, riding a draft high above.

May you find peace in your heart, knowing our beloved Faith is free.

The library is the most democratic of institutions

2011-10-04T14:20:00.000-07:00

I'm testifying this evening on behalf of the Seattle Public Library's budget for 2012. Here's a copy of what I plan to say.

"I am AnnieSearle. I’ve had a library card for over30 years, and I use the Northeast, Green Lake and University branches. And I ama member of the Seattle Public Library Foundation board.

First ofall, I would like to thank you for your consistent and thoughtful funding ofthe Seattle Public Library and its branches over the past several toughyears. We all know how tough the choicesare that you have, especially this year. I’d also like to thank the mayor for recommending no cuts to the Librarybudget this year.

The Libraryseems to have led the way over the past several years as it reduced its branchoperating hours and staff in branches by 13% or over 9,000 hours per year. Library staff took a 2% reduction inpay. And today, 15 of our branches areopen only 5 days a week, 7 hours per day. That’s tough on the neighborhoods they serve. The Library’s $5 million proposed budget forbooks and materials is down 14% from the 2010 budget that was adopted. And, as each of you knows from your ownlibrary use, the Library’s 27 heavily used buildings are now in the peculiarposition of having both increased traffic and sorely needed upkeep and maintenance from that traffic.

Despite thereduced hours and lower investment in books and infrastructure, the librarycurrently has over 500,000 card carrying borrowers.

Especiallywith the cuts to Seattle schools library programs and in light of reducedoperating hours at community centers which are often in close proximity tobranches, I ask that you consider restoring some of the collections budget inorder to serve what continues to be an increasing number of users at a timewhen we are still carrying the impacts of prior reductions."

Wishing My Friends The Best Walk Ever!

2011-09-13T14:39:00.000-07:00

2008 Opening Ceremonies: Carrying the Flag

Kindred Spirits 2008 Across the Finish Line -- Mary Jo, Annie, Ginny and Carol


2007 Training Walk with Anna Terrones. I miss her very much.

Though I know that other commitments kept me from training and walking in this year's 3 Day Walk for Breast Cancer -- coming up this weekend -- I nonetheless miss everything that leads up to the walk itself. The friends that I made and the experiences we shared are cumulative. They are important because everyone is training and raising money for a cause larger than themselves, usually out of personal experience or friendship with someone who has cancer.

I'll be out early Friday morning to cheer all the walkers out the gate at Qwest Field, and I'll see them again on Sunday when they leave Husky Stadium on the last leg of the walk. These three photos remind me of the very special experience of training for six months and then making the walks in 2007 and 2008.

To the 100+ members of my team, the Kindred Spirits, I wish you the joy that comes with knowing you are doing something genuinely important. Year by year, you are changing the world.

Balancing Act.

2011-08-26T15:34:00.000-07:00

You can see that over two weeks have passed since I last posted. I don't think I am going to be able to keep this blog as active as I would like over the next couple of months. I've got a new blog to support launch and marketing of the new book, Advice From A Risk Detective and that's where my attention will be.

The book should be out by October 1, at which point I'll be back more often here. It's hard to let go of something that I've written since 2007, so I'll just say "see you later."

Report from the field.

2011-08-11T21:31:00.000-07:00

Annie & Lauren Du Graf --July 2009 Launch Party for ASA

I'm a very lucky woman. I have the benefit of a learned critical intelligence reading and critiquing my book manuscript. That would be Lauren Du Graf, ASA's first research associate and my good friend. She saw early versions of the several chapters of the book last spring -- and she was on the receiving end last weekend when I finished the entire manuscript on the deadline I'd set for an early first cut. She's the only person to date, in fact, who has read the whole manuscript.

So on Tuesday afternoon she delivered the news -- what I had described as a practical, hands-on manual filled with tips and checklists and titled "Safer, Not Sorry: Taking Reasonable Precautions" had morphed into another type of book, one with a distinctive voice that not only offered advice but also told stories with words and pictures. She found that three of the four sections could be reworked, but wondered about the fourth which should be dropped if it could not be improved. I am making it sound less polite than she put it, but that's what I like so much about working with her again -- she tells the truth and has an unerring eye for incongruities and fluff.

The result is that I've rewritten the introduction of the book, providing a better basis for the new title, "Advice from a Risk Detective: At Home, At Work, Online and On the Road." And I have gutted and reframed the fourth section to an acceptable level, with more rewrite in store of course. She has challenged me everywhere to be more explicit and state how I came to understand what risk is and how it can be managed.

I have a fair number of close friends, and a wide circle of colleagues. Since we started working together on constructing the content for the ASA website, Lauren has both supported and challenged me without ever sucking up. Tomorrow, we'll meet with the book's designer. I asked her originally to sit in because she often is able to represent my perspective better than I can myself. This time, though, she'll be sitting as an active partner because she's helped make the book as good as it will be in another week.

Writing a book is hard work.

2011-08-02T14:49:00.000-07:00

Once you become an executive, you are prized for your ability to write short and sweet, in paragraphs that form an executive summary that other executives can understand. In the past two years at ASA, I've continued to write short pieces, either monthly columns or research notes that are 300 words or so.

Now I'm coming down to the wire on a book manuscript for which I have created deadlines that back up to the Northwest's largest book event, the Northwest Bookfest on October 1-2. The name of the book is Safer, Not Sorry: Taking Reasonable Precautions.

The book stems from a desire to influence a larger audience than I can reach in my professional work with corporate clients.I want the book to be small and handy, a reference book rather than a scholarly work. It's written for you and everyone else you know, in plain English. It discusses how to handle your personal risk at home, at work, on the Internet, and in the world while traveling.

And things are coming along pretty well, except that I can't work on it full time at this point. Emily has been assisting me with the manuscript as a sort of zen master of Microsoft Word. I intend to be done with at least the first pass of the whole manuscript by a week from today, so that I have time to send it to the two people who will help me bring it to final state -- Lauren is back in the saddle to oversee on editorial & technical aspects and to inspire me to a better end result; and Jesse, who designed ASA's look and logo, will design the book cover and make sense of its interior presentation.

When everything is all done, we'll ship the book as a PDF to Amazon's new independent publishing service called createspace. I'll have a commercial bookpage on Amazon, and folks can order the book in any quantity, and it will be printed and shipped within two days.

I do have to say that writing a book and growing a business at the same time have put me right at the edge of my comfort zone. These next couple of months will be quite interesting as we find out whether my deadline is realistic. Either way, I'll be thinking through how best to manage my personal risk.

Bagley Wright.

2011-07-19T18:42:00.000-07:00

I was hired by the Seattle Art Museum board to launch a full bore public affairs/press office for the King Tut exhibit in the late 70s. That's me talking to a line of people about how long a wait they would have to get into the exhibition, which hosted over 1,100,000 people in the six months that it visited Seattle.

I met Bagley Wright when I briefed the board on our plans for media coverage and VIP visitors. He and his wife, Virginia Bloedel Wright, helped form more of the current collection at SAM than you can imagine. After Tut, I stayed on to create a grants office, and aggregate some other functions like publications and public relations into my responsibilities. That's when I got to know Bagley better -- he stepped in during a long search process for a new museum director to be the interim director. And we all loved it. We would have walked through fire for him. It was during this interim period that ten of his friends got together to name the new repertory theater after him. "Usually," he said, "they only name theaters after dead people."

When I left the museum after 7 years, he and John Hauberg took my husband and I out to dinner at Canlis. I was nearly nine months pregnant, and not very hungry -- but will forever remember an evening spent with two of the greatest philanthropists that Seattle will ever know.

I had wanted to find the black and white photo of Bagley and former Mayor Charles Royer and myself, conferring after an acrimonious meeting on what was eventually to be a new downtown museum. I have looked through many files and scrapbooks, but cannot find it easily without lifting more boxes with my bum elbow. So I'll hold it clearly in my mind and lift a glass instead, as I recall this amazing man -- erudite, witty, a lover of arts and culture, and (as he liked to call himself) an old newspaper man.

Family photographs.

2011-07-15T13:03:00.000-07:00

I am working at what feels like snail's pace to scan the thousands of photos that we've collected over the years. I have managed to get some of the more memorable of them re-framed and on the wall of my former study, now called "The Snug." It's where we moved our reading chairs and small television when I moved my office into the front dormer.

Cassandra and Sabrina, pictured above, in earlier years, can attest to my years of working with a camera, and to the boxes of photos I've got tucked away in various spots of the house.This is a first effort to take studio photographs and others that we especially love and get them displayed.

You can see that I have whole walls I have not yet touched, so there is more to come. Just getting out the boxes of framed photos alone is a large project -- I'm doing it that way on the assumption that I never put a photo in a frame unless it was exceptional -- and one that will take at least the rest of the summer.

I like looking at the years spanned by the photos. It's where we have been to get where we are. And there will always be new photos.

Gardens and their keepers.

2011-07-13T08:25:00.000-07:00

I fancy myself to be a better gardener than I am. But I so love the role and the garden gives me so much visual pleasure that I keep at it. And gardening, like walking, is a wonderful means to think through and solve problems. Above: small rockery to left of our driveway.

You can see from this photo of the front rockery that my rosemary bushes came through the cold winter just fine, with a bit of pruning of deadwood. I have had tendonitis of the left elbow since late April, which makes me a one handed gardener this year. Since it's really impossible not to use your left arm as support or to gather, every time I try to garden with one arm I set myself back in terms of elbow recovery.

This lemon wreath for the front porch was purchased rather than made this year, as was the large cleanup effort undertaken in both front and back gardens by Antonio Silva.

So here's a view of the back garden, cleaned up, with Peruvian Lilies blooming madly. They have been in the garden for as long as we have lived here.

Gardens are a whole world unto themselves, and gardeners are a special breed. I have run out of things to say about my garden, but I will never get tired of looking at it.

East Coast Travels June 2011

2011-06-21T11:47:00.000-07:00


James Searle and Jackie Hayes in front of one of the New York Public Library's famed lions. Though the library was closed (budget cuts), we were able to sit outside and talk before we made our way to the Museum of Modern Art, also known as MOMA.

Rodin's Balzac is in the lobby of MOMA.

We were not allowed to photograph sixth floor exhibits -- a pity because they included a German Expressionist show as well as a brilliant exhibit featuring the work of Francis Alys, a Belgian architect who moved to Mexico, -- but here are some images from a wonderful show on second floor of MOMA.

Another piece in the African show at MOMA.

Printmaking and photography combined, MOMA African show.

The Jane Hotel in Greenwich Village, one of the most interesting hotels in the city. It's only a short shot down the West Side Highway to the Financial District. And I could walk a mile or so to NYU from the hotel.

Lobby of the Jane Hotel.

Safe in lobby of Jane Hotel, a former seamans' home.

Jane Hotel, head of "berth."

View of foot of my berth -- a tight but very workable space.

Ground Zero Construction.

Ground Zero is a bustling place.

View from the deck of the NYU Law School.

View into the summit room with its technology.

Shot from the train, on my way to Baltimore.

I'm sorry that I don't have any photos from my weekend visit at my sister's home in Princeton with its beautiful gardens. And apologies for the small photos, too! Next time, I'll upload everything from my iPhone right away rather than have to copy them down from Facebook after the fact.

Traveling light.

2011-06-09T11:35:00.000-07:00

One of the real pleasures of my work has always been the ability to combine business, pleasure and train travel. I'm on my way to the East Coast on Saturday, a few days in advance of a conference, so that I can spend time with my family. I'll set up shop in Princeton at my sister's place for the weekend, and meet my son James on Sunday here in Penn Station for a day of fast talk, good food, a museum or two, and a lot of walking. We'll have about eight hours before we each take our trains out. Then on Monday afternoon, I'll come back into the city and check into my hotel to start meetings and then a global risk summit at NYU that goes until Wednesday evening. Back onto the train again, this time for work in Baltimore/Annapolis/DC. I'll fly back on the congressional milk wagon Friday evening.

I realize that not everyone is lucky enough to be able to combine all these elements. For me, it's what makes life interesting.

"Where is your next best idea coming from?"

2011-06-02T21:15:00.000-07:00

One of the most successful events for the University of Washington's School of Information is each year's Capstone event, where both selected undergraduates and the graduate students completing their master's degrees present first in short 30 second teasers, and then make themselves available for questions from the audience in a large hall afterward. Tonight there were 69 such presentations. Leroy was kind enough to photograph me with three graduates whom I respect highly.

Emily Oxenford has spent this past academic year with me. She took her undergraduate degree with high honors from American University, with a concentration in Peace & Conflict Resolution. She is the author of nine ASA research notes, whose topics include social media and communicating crisis management value. She is interested generally in solving local and global problems through improving information.

Her ASA responsibilities including editing each month's newsletter, writing 8-9 research notes, and participating in several client projects. She chose to do an information audit of ASA as her Capstone. How does a shop that is essentially one person move to an information architecture that will support growth? [I suggested that she redraw my photo as Medusa, with information streams as the snakes coming out of my head, but no such luck.] The poster showing her project is behind us in this photo.

Her maternal grandparents also attended this evening's capstone presentations.

This is a bit out of focus but I wanted to use it because it shows the Capstone project undertaken by Shirish Munshi, ASA's 2010 summer research associate, and Swarnika Mehta, where they investigated a complex set of options involving health information data that is bound by privacy laws, with an eye to hosting Campus Health Services in the cloud.

Norah Abokhodair first introduced herself to me when I guest lectured in an information security course at the UW. I have followed her progress with great interest since that time. She will be admitted to the graduate program at the Information School this fall, and she will go far. Her Capstone, conducted with two other students, looked at another record management system in the health care area, with a significant emphasis on interviews conducted with stakeholders.

One last note -- here's Harry Bruce, the dean of the School of Information, whose unfailingly positive outlook and keen dedication to students and faculty alike make its programs a joy to be affiliated with. Tonight was not commencement, but for me it was the outward manifestation -- the culmination of the work itself -- for awarding the degrees that are to come.

Memorial Day 2011

2011-05-30T10:03:00.000-07:00

Though only 1100 people lived in the town where I grew up, everyone wore a poppy and everyone honored the service of living and dead members of the military on Memorial and Veterans Days. I like this poster because it looks to be from shortly after World War I, the war that my father, Dr. James Harrison Sowers, served in as part of the Army Dental Corps. I suspect this photo is from his college graduation or from his graduation from dental school at the University of Iowa.

By the time my sister and I were born, my father was in his late fifties and we were just coming out of World War II. He managed memories of that war by story-telling, at least the humorous parts and the parts that highlighted the discipline of the Army. We learned to make our beds with square corners, so flat that a quarter could be bounced off it. We were taught the Army song, to salute, to turn out and to march. He let us use his Army blanket for picnics and tea parties.

Stored away in Doc's Army footlocker were other souvenirs from his time in the corps, including a terrific black and white photo of his corps, which hung in his dental office for some of my childhood. He was a lifelong member of both the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, for whom we sold the poppies made by veterans.

Doc was buried in the cemetery in Buffalo Center overlooking the rich cornfields of northern Iowa with a formal military salute in 1970.

I am glad that he came home from that war and, later, as a widower, married my mother and had two daughters. So many did not come home from that war, or all the wars that have followed. If you see someone offering you a poppy today, take it in memory of someone you know who served our country in the military. Or on behalf of the thousands who no longer have anyone left to remember them.

Inspiring Hope 2011

2011-05-09T12:09:00.000-07:00

There are no words necessary to describe the joy and pleasure of friends who meet to do good works. On Saturday, we participated in the second annual "Inspiring Hope" 5k/10k walk run to benefit the Komen Foundation. It is estimated that we raised around $5,000 -- and had a pancake breakfast after the event as well. Here are a few photos. You can see from the smiles that we are all happy to be a part of this event.

Carol Frombach Salo and Ginny Douglas, both survivors, and both 3 Day Walkers.

No rain, just a bit of chilly wind as the runners begin to line up.

Runners could opt between 5k or 10k races.

Here's the event organizer and captain of the Kindred Spirits 3 Day Walk team, Penny Kellam.

Thanks to Ginny, I am able to tell you that William Kline is the guy in the kilt, who has been walking in 3 Day events since at least 2007, when I first walked. To his left is my dear friend Jenny Sinanan in the purple coat.

We loved these young people and their signs, waving the participants onto the course and welcoming them back.

Penny invites the walkers to take the course.

And out they go! (I played photographer, to spare my right knee.) ASA Risk Consultants is one of the gold sponsors of the event.

Coming back in. He always walks with a pack and in these heavy boots. Great legs!

Here is Jenny coming in, wearing her University Street Fair hat that makes everyone smile.

Carol and Ginny cross the finish line without breaking a sweat.

Friends forever left to right: me, Jenny Sinanan, Lynn Matthews, Ginny Douglas and Carol Frombach Salo.

Such a great neighborhood!

2011-05-09T11:46:00.000-07:00

Our neighbors Jo and Charlie Voss have for years invited all of us in the neighborhood to their home on the first Friday of every month. Folks bring food or drink and relax over conversation. I spent only about an hour last Friday, but it was long enough to get a photo of an early version of Jo's table, set to celebrate Cinco de Mayo a day late...more and more food just keeps appearing as the house fills up. This is one of several wonderful traditions in our neighborhood.

On Wednesday evening, I'm one of a number of residents attending an orientation for the Seattle Neighborhood Action Program (SNAP) implementation in our Ravenna neighborhood. I'll be responsible for the 12 homes on one block of 19th Avenue -- ensuring we have contact information and also can assist any neighborhood residents who might need extra help during an emergency event like a power outage or an earthquake. I like taking what I know professionally and applying it locally.

My walking hat.

2011-05-06T10:55:00.000-07:00

I've walked to raise money for breast cancer in this hat since 2007. Embroidered on the hat are the names of those for whom I walk. I will be wearing my hat tomorrow at the "Inspiring Hope" 5k/10k walk/run to raise money for the Kindred Spirits team, with whom I trained and walked in 2007 and 2008. I'm proud that ASA Risk Consultants is a sponsor of the event for the second year in a row.

I thought I would tell you a bit about each of the persons whose names are on my hat. On the front are Tracy and Diane, both breast cancer survivors, one my next door neighbor and one my former colleague at Washington Mutual who walks now each year herself, On the side of my hat that you can see in this picture are three other WaMulians -- Julie, whose humor and optimism in facing down advanced breast cancer was the inspiration for my first ever walk; Denise, who fought pancreatic cancer right down to the end with all the experimental treatments available; and Lisa, who beat thyroid cancer in 2006. The back of my hat is jammed with names added over time including five breast cancer survivors (Colleen, Cindy, and Judy from WaMu and Anne, guiding light for so many years at The Seattle Foundation), as well as two brain cancer patients, the composer/musician Andrew d'Angelo and my hero now deceased, Teddy Kennedy, Lion of the Senate; and my colleague Brian, who came back from a virulent form of abdominal cancer. The fourth side of my hat includes my sister Mary, a breast cancer survivor; my friend Jobeth, who beat uterine cancer; and my old friend Sabine, who was laid to rest last year of brain cancer.

Each of these names represents a real person, whose life was torn apart by cancer.

My hat does not carry the names of the survivors who are members of the Kindred Spirits team, but I wanted to mention our captain, Penny Kellam, who has led this team and walked for something like thirteen or so 60 mile events. She is the organizer of the "Inspiring Hope" event tomorrow, and a survivor of both uterine and cervical cancer.

This list is way too long. Our banners say "Everyone deserves a lifetime." I'll continue to walk and raise funds for screening, early detection and additional research that brings us closer to understanding how to eliminate this horrific disease.

Leroy remembers Rachel.

2011-04-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

In Memoriam:

Rachel Elizabeth Ewer, December 2,1993-April 6, 2011

We do not know how any life will close. We only know it as a gift, an unimaginable event of joy and watchfulness. With her mother’s fierce and eager engagement of living and her father’s unfailing kindness and gentle regard, Rachel was a girl of enormous gifts, of talent and intelligence and generosity. She lived her whole life fully, receiving it as a miracle and wonder. In a family that almost every day sang themselves into waking, as into sleep, she came to music with a sober joy and seriousness, with a teacher’s calm determination setting out to give her grandfather a lesson on her diminutive violin, knowing almost before she knew anything else that this is how learning truly happens. She went to school as if it were her absolute birthright, learning, eager to learn, everything that could be learned. In the grief and pain of her passing, coming both too slowly and too fast, she perhaps better than any of us understood the perilousness of living and the seriousness of dying, but with a steadiness of light and a fixed determination to live out every moment as fully as it could be lived. Her loss is overwhelming. Everyone she touched, which is everyone she met, understood without instruction how great a gift is kindness, attention, the willingness to do and to be, that was so plain in her. At its closing, how a life has been lived may be all that we can know of it. Rachel’s was miraculous and beautiful and we rejoice in every moment of it.

Rachel Elizabeth Ewer

2011-04-08T16:57:00.000-07:00

When Cassandra and the Phoenix Chorale came to sing at a national conference and then give a performance at St. Mark's cathedral (above), she brought her husband Richard, her son Jeremy and daughter Rachel Ewer. That was a little more than a year ago. Rachel was at that time on a more dramatic course of medications for the valley fever disease than she had been for the previous eight or so years. But you would never have known that she did not feel well. And she never wanted to be asked how she felt. She disliked drawing attention to herself in any way.

Like her parents, she loved music -- piano, violin and voice. Her father, a composer, has both written and arranged music for the Phoenix Girls Chorus of which she was a part, and through which she became a world traveler.

To me, she was both elfin and intrepid. So smart and yet so kind. Such a terrific sense of both humor and irony. She lived a full and varied life, of which we will hear more tomorrow as musicians and fellow students and her family pay tribute to her life and her impact upon the world.

This photo is from 2006, when we trekked through the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island.

She will never be forgotten by anyone whose life she touched.

Leroy and I thank each of you who have taken the time to write, and we are overwhelmed by your love and support.

Seattle Garden Show

2011-02-26T15:32:00.001-08:00

Nearly every year since the boys were little, my friend Suzie and I go to the annual garden show here in Seattle, armed with our cameras, on the lookout for new ideas to implement in our own gardens. In the background of this photo (above) and at the very end of this blog entry, is a "modern-shed," beautifully done, at 8x14'. Too big for my back garden, but more upscale that the $200 pallet sheds shown this past Thursday in the home section of the New York Times.

One of the displays on the skybridge, outside the show itself.

Part of a vignette that included beautiful driftwood and other spare feeling trees and rocks.

Since this year's theme was "Tell Me a Story," it's no surprise that there were toadstools in abundance throughout the exhibits.

Beautifully executed in wood, the pavers are actually made of wine bottle corks.

More of the same exhibit, in fact its frontispiece.

My favorite nursery was well represented in the show as well.

Part of the "Alice's Gardens" exhibit, from Innovative Landscape Technologies; the other part being "Alice's Labyrinth" created by our favorite Seattle composter, Cedar Grove.

This photo and the one below are both from the "Alice's Garden" side of the exhibit.

A living wall.

A remarkable canvas above this exhibit, but I could not for the life of me capture the second line of the canvas.

Belongs to Mr. Toad.

More from Toad Hill.

A section of an extraordinary exhibit from Christensen's Nursery.

More of that same exhibit.

And a side view of the Modern-Shed that I began this blog entry with. As I write this entry, it is snowing again in Seattle, lightly, but the weather is very cold. Not a gardening weekend, but then not far away either from many weekends in the garden.

"Be the change you want to see in the world." -- Mahatma Ghadi

2011-02-14T13:56:00.001-08:00

It was an historic week to be in Washington DC. Though most days were jam-packed, we had no meetings until 1pm on Wednesday, and so Larry and I decided to visit the Mall, specifically the north end. It was roughly 22 degrees outside with bright sunshine as we walked for about an hour. Here is some of what we saw.

The Vietnam Memorial, erected in 1982, is one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture imaginable. To experience it, you walk down into it, a wall made up of granite panels with the names of all the American soldiers who died in Vietnam.

Larry is over 6' tall, so you tell from this shot how tall the walls are, and what the experience of going down in and then coming back up would be like.

Another shot, as I was walking into the lowest part.

It has been horribly cold and snowy in DC. Usually there are flowers and other gifts left near names on the panels.

From that memorial, you can walk directly to the Lincoln Memorial, which has a different kind of gravity and heft to it.

You cannot see Abraham Lincoln until you are well on your way up the steps. He is seated near the back of the memorial.

Photo is for scale, and I think from this picture that Larry must be well over 6' tall.

On one wall is the Gettysburg Address, and on this wall is Lincoln's second Inaugural Address.

This is part of the Korean War Memorial. Though I'm not crazy about the literal renderings of soldiers, I did like many parts of the memorial very much.

Who remembers that so many died in Korea?

This photo was taken on Friday morning, after I'd had several morning appointments and was taking a break at the National Gallery of Art, looking at a beautiful Impressionism show.

I got back to the hotel to check out before my last 1pm appointment just in time to see the crowds in Egypt go crazy with joy and relief. The world experienced a seismic shift. It is the largest single demonstration of the nonviolent principles that both Ghandi and Dr. King espoused. Add the power of Twitter and Facebook into the mix and you saw, in front of your eyes, a large group of people be the actual change they wanted to see.

"Some things you must always be unable to bear." -- William Faulkner

2011-01-17T09:47:00.001-08:00

Whenever I visit Washington DC, I leave time to walk the Mall, usually the south end and often at night. I walk into Maya Lin's exquisitely simple Vietnam Memorial, a series of black slabs that slice down into the earth and back out. It never fails to move me.

Then I walk on over to a site that resonates with voices long past, with symbols of what is painfully best about our country. Eleanor Roosevelt asked Marian Anderson to sing here on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial after she was refused by the Daughters of the American Revolution. It is here that Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis and so many others stood looking out at thousands gathered and stretched out past the Reflecting Pool in late August for the "March on Washington," where Dr King made his "I have a dream" speech. It's the same location where several years later I returned to participate in the Poor People's March. And it's where I took my five year old son, to read him Abraham Lincoln's words that are chiseled into the back wall of the memorial. It was difficult to explain to him that Lincoln was assassinated for what he had said and done as president of this country.

When I return next month, the new memorial to honor Dr. King will be nearly finished. It will stretch my walk to the northeast end of the Tidal Basin, near to the FDR Memorial and the Jefferson Monument. Like the Lincoln Memorial, visitors will be able to read what Dr. King said.

Faulkner is right that there are some things that can never be born. For me, a college kid from a small town in northern Iowa, it was and is inconceivable that some elements of our society were so filled with hatred, anger and mental illness that men who spoke to what is best in us were murdered. We are shaken now by what we have seen in Tucson. I have only to remember that my college years included the assassinations of President Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. As I listen to Dr. King's words being rebroadcast today, it's clear just how far we still have to go.