a tall personality

Everyone, meet my friend Skyler.  I asked him if I could take a picture of him doing a backflip, and it turns out he can not only do backflips, but just about any other kind of flip.  Skyler deserves his own post without a doubt, but this one is just going to be about backflips :) When I was a kid I learned to do backflips on my trampoline, and I quickly found that a backflip takes TOTAL commitment.  If you aren't ready to finish the backflip when you start, you end up landing on your head.  Backflips aren't that dangerous...unless you get half way and decide you don't want to do one anymore.  What's more, most of my head-landings interrupted otherwise perfectly executed flips. I had Skyler pose at the exact point at which it is most crucial to NOT  freak out! As I've thought about recent choices I have made, specifically the choice to get a master's in social work, this is the analogy that has come to mind.  It was a scary choice to make, but I'v

This weekend I went to the best fireworks show this side of the Atlantic Ocean, at least for me it is. It takes place every year on the 2nd or 3rd of July in Lander, Wyoming.  It's put on by a wonderful family, the Bills. "So...Why not on the 4th?"  I asked the first time I went to the show 6 years ago. Well, check this out: "The Second Day of July 1776 will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. . . . It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more." John Adams to Abigail Adams, July 3, 1776 (http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals/declarat.html) The vote for independence actually took place on the 2nd, and the declaration penned by Thomas Jefferson was adopted two days later on the 4th!  So the Bills are following John Adams' advice, and I think that is pretty legit!  This i