Ian

This is Ian. We ran into him at a wood stove store we haunt from time to time. I've known Ian probably 20 years, having both of his daughters in class when I taught at Central High in Independence. His daughters were terrific students, and Ian was one of the most supportive parents of their teachers I ever met. Once Ian showed up in the hallway outside my classroom. When I saw him, he got this very serious look on his face and said, "You gave my daughter a B on her essay." I looked at him and said, "Yeah, I think I did." He paused a moment, then shook my hand and said, "THANK YOU! She's never had a B in her life, and she is now taking her writing so seriously!" Ok, I thought. Evidently she did take her writing seriously. She graduated from Brown University, acquired her doctorate, and now is a sociology professor at Whitman College. Ian has a great sense of humor as well. Once when I asked how his youngest daughter was doing, he said, "Don, she's found The Lord," then added after a short pause, "Please pray for her!",then roared his great, toothy laugh. Ian spent three years enrolled at the Yale Divinity School, but dropped out in an intense following of the anti-war movement in the 60s. When he suddenly produced a great discount on our purchase today, I told him his divinity school lessons had not been lost. Ian - one of the good guys.

The second picture is of a work bench shelf at the same wood stove store. The signs here reflect Ian's sense of humor: "They can take my wood stove when they pry my warm, dead fingers from it;" "When wood stoves are outlawed, only outlaws will have wood stoves;" and "Split wood, not atoms." I love work benches, especially work benches with character. This bench has character in spades. What a great day catching up with Ian and his irreverent work bench.