Finally, this Uiñiq is published! Oh, my goodness, has it been a long haul! I started working on it in the spring of 2008 in anticipation that I would have it done and out by the end of that year. But then, on June 12, 2008, I took my infamous fall, shattered my shoulder, got a $37,000-plus Lear Jet ambulance ride from Barrow to Providence Hospital in Anchorage, where, after two surgeries, the doctor took out my shattered humerus and gave me a titanium one - a wonder, yes, but no match for a real shoulder.
As so much of my work is physical, a year then passed before I was really able to get back to work on it in a serious way. Finally, I pretty much had it all together late last year, save for a bit of touchup. Then one thing after another just kept happening to delay it and during the delays I would make some changes and then it would be delayed again.
But now it is published and soon it will be distributed across the Arctic Slope.
And within a week of when I get back from Greenland, I will return to the Slope to start on the next one, which I hope to complete by the end of the year. I shouldn't say "start," because I actually have many photos and stories left over that I was not able to fit into this one, some of them more or less complete, some needing more work.
So I have already started.
Shortly after I drove away from Metro Cafe this afternoon (Carmen was not there, by the way) I saw these two Mormon missionaries walking these dogs alongside Spruce Avenue. Of course, I stopped to take their picture.
That's Elder Wade on the left and he is from Logan, Utah, a mountain town, and has been out for a year-and-half. That's Elder Stoker on the right, from St. George, Utah - a red-rock desert town and a place of searing heat this time of year.
They were walking the dogs for a church member and they asked me what Mormon ward I lived in, but I didn't know. For more than a quarter of a century, the only times that I have been inside the chapels of the church of my upbringing has been for the funerals of family members and friends.
They asked me, why? I just told them it was a long and complicated story, but not to worry, I have nothing but kind thoughts toward them because I have walked just as they walk, with dogs following, but never on leash, because these were reservation dogs and they came and went as they pleased. Those dogs just liked us, so they followed us.
So, however strange they may look to some and however far I wander from where they and I began, I continue to emphasize with these young men and to have a feeling for them.
The dogs got restless.
Someday, I will make a book of all these pictures of Mormon missionaries that I happen onto and I will tell missionary stories - not their stories, my stories.
God, it will be a powerful book!
And a heartbreaking one.
Mine was a mission of blood and tears.
The world never again looked the same to me.
I was unable to return to the place from whence I came.
;)
Lavina brought Margie back, so that Margie could drive me to the airport to catch the plane that will begin my trip to Greenland. Jobe and Kalib came, too. Jobe is growing so fast!
He will probably be a giant when I return from Greenland, July 4.
Kalib wanted to hold Jobe.
And then they left.
And what I am doing, sitting here at 9:41 PM, Thursday night, working on this blog, when my flight leaves Anchorage at 7:45 AM Friday and I still have hours of tasks to complete before I go?
By the time this post appears, I will be on my way to Nuuk, Greenland.
To all my friends who are also going - see you there. I won't be on the charter with you. There was no room, so ICC Alaska booked me on a series of flights that will take me through Copenhagen. I will spend Saturday afternoon and night there.
I will post from Copenhagen.