Picture: William F. Buckley and Minnesota College Republicans, 1986. That’s me on the right with my Wm. F. Buckley Signature Model clipboard and signed copy of Up from Liberalism.

“Complaint is profanation in the absence of gratitude.”
- William F. Buckley, Overdrive

William F. Buckley passed away two days ago. The conservative intellectual was one of the heroes of my youth. In those days – from the late 1970s through the late 1980s – I idolized a diverse pantheon that also included George Will, Bruce Springsteen, Woody Allen, and John McEnroe. Yes, I was odd.

As Will and Buckley’s names indicate, I was a conservative then, though with time and experience I now accept the labels liberal or progressive. Born in 1965, growing up in the Minneapolis suburbs, influenced by a father and other family members who voted Republican, reading U.S. News and World Report, and witnessing the rise of Ronald Reagan, I was drawn to the ideas of the conservative movement, particularly its anticommunism.

The maps in U.S. News left little doubt about the perils of the Cold War: there were the red areas controlled by the Communists and the blue areas of the freedom-loving West. This was, I learned, an epic struggle for control of the world and, ultimately, our own self-determination. Despite all that I’ve learned since then about American injustice and imperialism, I still accept the broad outlines of that outlook on the Cold War, and I do not regret that position. Read the rest of this entry »

On Thursday, January 31, I spoke to the Northfield Rotary Club about the Northfield Area Task Force on Nonmotorized Transportation, on which I serve as chair. I began by explaining how I got involved in bike and pedestrian advocacy. I didn’t put it quite this way in the talk, but I’ve come to view my advocacy as really a coincidence resulting from the special character of the last two cities I’ve lived in: Davis, California, and my current city of residence, Northfield, Minnesota. Davis showed me what was possible for nonmotorized transportation in cities, while Northfield encouraged me with its potential and its people - people who agreed that Northfield could make important strides in healthier modes of transportation.

The bulk of my talk to Rotary addressed the reasons that communities should promote cycling and walking and the mission and goals of the task force. As far as the reasons for promoting nonmotorized transportation, I focused on energy issues and health issues, with more emphasis on the latter. Regarding energy, I displayed a slide showing the vastly different energy requirements for propelling a pedestrian or cyclist as compared to a person in a motor vehicle. Of course this is a function of the difference in the weight of the vehicles (or lack of vehicle) involved. Here are the examples of vehicle weights that I gave: Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve heard this winter in the Upper Midwest described as “your father’s winter” - meaning it’s like a winter in days of yore. Or perhaps, to be gender-neutral, we should say this winter is “your parents’ winter.”

We’ve had a handful of days here in southern Minnesota, including this morning, that have begun with temperatures around 16 below zero - thankfully no colder than that. That’s cold enough. Currently we’re reaching the nadir of a cold spell that is supposed to moderate in a couple of days.

Making things worse, I’m having some circulation problems in my hands and feet - a numb tingling that follows exposure to cold. Is it the result of some allergy medication that I’m taking? Some of the medical literature leads me to think that, and I will see a doctor today. Is it Raynaud’s disease, a condition my father has had, in which the body has an exaggerated response to cold temperatures? Is it the result of biking in twenty-degree temperatures? Is it because I haven’t been exercising enough? Or am I just getting old? Time will tell, and I can only hope that I’ll be able to resume a reasonably active life outdoors in winter.

Our son is 1 month old today. Our Christmas baby, who could not lift his head, who seemed feather-light, can now hold his head up and scan his surroundings, can now weigh down our shoulders. The child who did not seem to focus his eyes can now gather us in with his gaze. The little one who could only flail unfamiliar limbs can now grasp with his hands. And most remarkable of all, the face that before was only able to grimace or register a lack of affect can now express a smile.

We are still short of sleep much of the time, particularly my wife, who must handle the nighttime nursing, while I do the graveyard diaper changes. But then we didn’t have children to make life easier, I’ve thought to myself. We did it because of the rewards they bring, despite the heavy demands.

Those demands include lots of laundry–one, two, or even three loads a day! Unwilling to pile up our landfills with disposable diapers, we use cloth diapers, as we did with our daughter, and they are the first load of laundry every day.

During the first couple of weeks after the birth, I did more housework and child care in order to let my wife rest and heal. She is stronger now and taking up most of the child care duties, since she has taken the semester off from her teaching job, while I need to earn some income doing my test development work.

We’ve experienced a somewhat isolated existence since the baby’s arrival. That is partly a function of the baby, but also a function of the cold weather we’ve been having lately. Yesterday morning the thermometer read 16 below, and we’ve had two other mornings that were just as cold in this long cold snap.

We look forward to warmer weather and more smiles from this wonderful baby.

While my wife was pacing the basement floor experiencing the first throes of labor, I spoke with our midwife to pass the time. “So what are the different kinds of people who do home births?” I asked.

People on the “margins,” she said, those who question mainstream society: Amish, hippies, farmers, certain groups of Christians; in the nineties, some people in the urban “grunge” movement.

She said that farm families are more comfortable with home birth because they see birth all the time in their animals. I said that it was interesting that the Amish would work with outside midwives; you’d think that they would have a midwifery tradition of their own. She commented that sometimes Amish birthing rooms actually have electricity available. Later my wife and I remembered that one of our midwives in California had worked with Midwestern Amish groups earlier in her career.

I suppose my wife and I fit into the category of those who question authority - in this case the nearly total authority that the medical profession claims over our bodies when we submit to its system of care.

Our second child, a son, was born early on Christmas Day, not long after the last post! We are thrilled to welcome him into the world! The last few days have been busy ones as we’ve been caring for him and my wife.

The photo above was taken several hours after birth. It’s amazing to think of that little person leaving his mother’s body and entering the world. The photo isn’t in very good focus, but you can see something of his red newborn’s skin.

The home birth went well, and our midwife, Melissa (Mel) Cathcart, got here in plenty of time for it. My wife began experiencing contractions at about 7:30 pm on the 24th. By 8:30 we had called Mel, and she was here about an hour after that.

Mel and I helped my wife as she went through early labor. But as we found out shortly before the baby was born, my wife’s labor progressed more rapidly than we realized. Mel said that my wife did not give the typical warning signs that the final push was near, perhaps because she has a high tolerance for that particular type of pain.

The result was that Mel was surprised when my wife went into the final stages of labor at around 1:30 am. A scant twelve minutes later and the baby had emerged, “in the caul,” as Mel said, or still in the membrane that covers the fetus in the womb. The birth took place in the cramped space of our basement bathroom, with Mel unwrapping the umbilical cord as the baby emerged, then catching the baby and removing the caul, if I remember rightly.

It’s a cliche to call birth a miracle, but that is how it seems. How wonderful to witness it in this season of miracles.

Tonight is Christmas Eve, and Christians will be remembering the birth of Jesus. In our household we’ll not only be observing the celebration of that ancient birth but also awaiting the birth of our second child. Our new child’s due date is actually Christmas Day, and so far, after a couple of episodes of false labor, my wife has not yet given birth.

We’re doing a home birth for the second time. Although home birth is quite rare in our culture, my wife feels strongly that it is better for her. I’ve come to agree with her that it is a better option for many women. I haven’t done much research on the issue, but my understanding is that home birth is much more common in Europe than it is in the U.S. and that Europeans have a much lower rate of Ceasarean births.

Home birth seemed more common in northern California, where we were living when our first child was born. There one of our midwives lived five minutes away and the second was only a half hour away. Here in Minnesota our sole midwife is at least an hour away in Minneapolis - two hours away in bad weather.

Fortunately, the hospital is only five minutes from our house. However, we we don’t want to go to the hospital if we can avoid it, and so I’ve received some training in what to do if the baby comes quickly and under what circumstances I should call 911. My wife’s mother and brother are here now, so we will have help available.

Of course all of this has added a lot of anticipation and a certain amount of drama to our holidays this year. I pause now to give thanks for what I’ve been given, and I pray for poise and equanimity for the new birth, the coming year, and what I hope is a long career of fatherhood and Christian discipleship.

Peace to you all this holiday season.

It’s been too long since my last post. I was preoccupied with work connected to our city’s Task Force on Nonmotorized Transportation, which I chair. The group organized two October 3 events: Walk to School Day at the Northfield Middle School and a community meeting on biking and walking that evening.

I’ll report more on those events in another post shortly.

Minnesota has recently become an intellectually poorer place with the departure of Richard Cretan for Portland, Oregon. I’ve known Richard since the early 1990’s, when we were introduced by a mutual friend, Prof. Peter Firchow of the University of Minnesota English Department, where Richard and I were both undergraduate majors in the 1980’s. (Our paths did not cross back then at that big place.)

Richard’s wife was recently offered a new job in Portland, and the combination of a good opportunity and the promise of going to one of the most sane and progressive cities in the country overcame their ties to the Twin Cities. So they have said goodbye to many dear friends and many years of life here in Minnesota.

I’ve learned much from Richard over the years, most recently my tendency to put too much trust in the powers-that-be: the mainstream media, the government, the corporate world, the political parties, etc. That trust, for example, led me to mistakenly support the Iraq War at its outset, not heeding Richard’s warnings. More recently Richard has been warning about the weaknesses in our economic system, some of which have been evident in the financial problems related to falling real estate prices and rising foreclosure rates.

Richard recently wrote a masterful post, “St. Paul to Portland, the long way,” that touches on these subjects and more. It’s his farewell to the state. Richard, we will miss you, but we look forward to seeing you in “Cascadia” and back here in the Upper Midwest.

Here’s a quote from Richard’s farewell post: Read the rest of this entry »

I recently “met” my namesake, Bill Ostrem, online a few weeks ago and was fortunate to be able to exchange some emails with him. I maintain a Google alert for my name and was notified of this nice profile of Bill in the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper. Bill appears to be willing to go the extra mile and pay extra costs to create better communities.

Here’s a quote from the article, which was published back in January: Read the rest of this entry »