I found this photo a couple weeks ago, and did a double take when I saw the date printed on the back — November 1989.

I stared at it, wondering, “Who is that girl in the red dress? Why is she grinning so big?”

I was four then.

Hard to believe that was 20 years ago.

All grown-ups were children first. (But few remember it.)

-The Little Prince

I mulled it over for a while — the trajectory of time and experience.

It’s sad, in a way, how memories fade, how a moment so concrete can turn to dust.

It’s also sublime knowing that somewhere that girl still exists, and somehow we are connected to people long gone and people yet to come.

In the end, it all blends together. We are yesterday, tomorrow and today.

I interviewed my friend and (former) colleague Chet White, a.k.a. Red Beard, about his first ultra marathon, the Mountain Masochist Trail Race. The 50 mile race traverses the Blue Ridge Mountains from the Parkway in Bedford County to Montebello, two counties north.  MMTR is one of the toughest trail races on the East Coast…  Congratulations to all the runners who conquered this course!!

Less than a week after the race, Red Beard left Lynchburg to be with his fiance in Kentucky. He is a talented photographer and we’ll really miss him at the News & Advance.

Exceprt from his interview below…

Click here for the whole story.

 Why did you decide to run the Mountain Masochist Trail Race?

Personal triumph. Running can be the most solitary sport. This is possibly going to be one of the greatest physical achievements that I’ll ever accomplish in my life. It feels so good to go out and put your body through hell on the mountains and then to finally get done.

The Masochist has the reputation of being one of the toughest trails races on the East Coast. What was the most masochistic aspect of it?

I would just say climbing in the mountains. On top of running for 50-plus miles, there’s a lot of climbing … Usually, when you’re running up hill, you can’t wait for the downhills. Halfway through, I didn’t even want downhills. I wanted flat land to run on.

When I crossed the finish line, the first thing I said to David Horton, who is the founder of the race, was, “This is the silliest thing I’ve ever done.” It was silly to go out and do that. That’s the way I felt during the race and that’s the way I felt right after the race.

Now that you’ve run more than 50 miles in the mountains, do you consider yourself a mountain man?

(Laughing) I do not consider myself a mountain man. Although, having lived in the mountains and having a long red beard, I have been called a mountain man before.

Do you aspire to be a mountain man?

I aspire to live a simple life like a mountain man one day.

Can you boil down your core beliefs to 500 words? In the 1951, Edward R. Murrow launched the radio series “This I Believe” where people did just that. The essays came from luminaries like Eleanor Roosevelt and Albert Einstein and ordinary folks like 16-year-old Elizabeth Deutsch from Shaker Heights, Ohio.

Last Christmas, my mom gave me the “This I Belive” book. I read a few essays, tossed the book aside and forgot about it.

A few days ago, I found the book in one of the many “piles o’ stuff” in my room. On a second read, I was moved by “An Honest Doubter,” the 1950s essay by 16-year-old  Elizabeth Deutsch. I admire her courage to doubt, her youthful wisdom and her depth of spirit. Here is her opening paragraph (source: www.thisibelive.org).

At the age of 16, many of my friends have already chosen a religion to follow (usually that of their parents), and are bound to it by many ties. I am still “free-lancing” in religion, searching for beliefs to guide me when I am an adult. I fear I shall always be searching, never attaining ultimate satisfaction, for I possess that blessing and curse – a doubting, questioning mind.

The next essay  “Have I Learned Anything Important Since I Was 16?” was from Elizabeth again, written 50 years later. Now a scientist, wife and mother, she reflects on how her beliefs have evolved. It was interesting to see what remained constant, and what changed. Here are a few snippets.

I still believe most of what I wrote long ago. Many of my early traits remain, including skepticism about religious authority, curiosity about the world and the lofty desire to live a righteous life.

….

When I was young, an honest and moral life seemed like a straightforward goal. I now know that it’s not always easy to see what should be done and even harder actually to do it. Nevertheless I’m grateful that I still have some time to keep trying to get it right, and to savor each remaining day in my life.

this is why i love the fall.  and why the mountains make me smile.

 happy halloween from lynchburg, virginia!

[Digital detox returns with a vengeance. This time I unplug from technology for 10 days. My detox begins now and ends on Nov. 1, the day after Halloween.

To see my installments from last spring, click here(pt.1) or here(pt.2) or here(pt.3).]

see you in 10 days ! ! ! ! ! ! !

newspapers + declining readership + declining ad revenues + unprofitable website x recession = FURLOUGHS

this year, everybody at my company was required to take 15 days off unpaid. that equals 120 hours, and that equals $32901849028 dollars not in my pocket. OK not that many dollars, but you get the picture.

my digital camera broke in the spring, and due to furloughs, i have not yet replaced it. the following pictures were taken with a cell phone camera.

furlough = three games of dog-opoly with kid sister.

furlough = dog that inspired dog-opoly.

furlough = climbing rocks.

furlough = wispy clouds.

furlough = sunset.

furlough = fall leaves.

furlough = misty mountains.

Here’s a science story about a wetland restoration project at an industrial site in Piney River. The driving force behind the story was a local biologist’s effort to save the habitat of Virginia’s rare mole salamander — a reclusive creature that spends most of its life underground. (It comes up once a year to mate.)

Biologists, company work together to save wetlands, mole salamander

There’s an eerie silence at the edge of the quarry, where barren rock meets the forest’s end.

About 20 feet back, under a canopy of willow oaks and red maples, lies the breeding ground of one of Virginia’s rarest amphibians: the mole salamander.

In 15 to 20 years, as the Boxley Materials Company mines rock for sidewalks and roads, the quarry edges in Nelson County will extend into the forest, swallowing the wetlands where the salamanders reproduce.

Destroying the wetlands doesn’t sit well with leaders at Boxley, a Roanoke-based company whose site in Piney River is one of 15 locations in the state with reproducing populations of mole salamanders.

“Being environmentally friendly is one of our visions. It’s part of what drives us as a business,” said Donald Barricks, superintendent of the Piney River location.

Nor does it sit well with a pair of scientists: Mike Hayslett, a conservation biologist from Sweet Briar College, and Tom Biebighauser, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service.

The mole salamander is designated a “species of special concern,” according to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Though it’s not endangered, it could become so because of population decline or loss of habitat.

In September 2007, the biologists joined forces with the industrial company to build a new wetland outside the range of quarry expansion.

Click here for the rest.

Journalism schools are reporting increasing enrollment numbers, yet newsrooms across the country are shrinking due to layoffs and hiring freezes. Where are these newly trained journalists going to work? How can we channel their grit and digital savvy into meaningful journalism?

The traditional newspaper career ladder is disappearing. It’s becoming more and more difficult to work your way up from a small paper to a major metropolitan daily within 5-10 years. The old model is failing and there is no clear picture as to what the new media model should be.

My friend at the Poynter Institute, Mallary, recently led an online chat with Andrew Donohue, editor of the VoiceofSanDiego.org, a nonprofit news site. Click here for the transcript.

It’s inspiring to see innovators in the journalism industry finding new ways to produce quality journalism. We need more people willing to take risks and finds new ways to rise above the status quo that has become standard in so many newsrooms.