Seeking Byrd, a Rock and a Coyote

January 5, 2008

Jun Matsumoto, 23, works both as a photographer’s assistant and a bicycle messenger in Tokyo, Japan. He read “Everybody Needs a Rock,” a book by Byrd Baylor, and it caught his imagination - he decided to come to the U.S. to see the beauty that Byrd had described.

Unlikely Heroes

December 1, 2007

There is a clerk in a convenience store in Tucson who used to believe that I was homeless.
I can see now that there was no other possible assumption he could make. After all, it was 11 p.m. on Christmas Eve; I came in wearing old jeans which were torn at the knee and a baggy brown sweater much too large for me. You could say I had failed once again to Dress For Success.

A Gathering of Ravens

October 11, 2007

You never know when the Raven People are going to teach you something. It always comes as a surprise and afterward, you can’t believe you didn’t think of it yourself.

Let me give you an example.

I was driving the rocky dirt road that winds from my house on Papalote Wash toward the paved road five or six miles away – going to a meeting in Tucson.