January’s webisode was a great one for content and a sparse one for attendance. That didn’t keep us from soldiering on through the stories so we could at least post them here online. Maybe someone out there will tune in after the fact.

For a small group it was a lively discussion. Top issues in today’s stories were the flood of 2019 and how that compares to the low water the River is facing today. The changes in climate are obviously affecting these extreme conditions in our environment, but it seems challenging for the people on the ground to connect with the larger call to action to affect change. They are just trying to get dry or get their goods to market or get their lives back to normal. Their stories, however, can play a part in that larger call to all people to make changes in their lives—big and small—to take better care of our River and the landscape it shapes.

We had the whole gang together today! Tom was back, Graydon showed up again, my parents zoomed in—a solid group, but hey! we’d love to see more of your shining faces. Don’t be strangers… Hopefully these recordings are being accessed by some of you, as I really feel there’s a lot of good content embedded here. And not just in the stories we share, but even more so in the dialogue surrounding them. Today was no different. After each story, everyone had such vital commentary, stimulating thoughts and ideas that need much more time to percolate. I hope we can revisit them in another iteration of this project.

Well it was an intimate group today, but a great conversation! So many thanks to Graydon Swisher for joining me for today’s webisode. With Tom away at a work function, I had to steer the ship by myself, but I think we managed between Graydon and me to dive deep into some pretty complex stories about race relations and differences of opinion. As Graydon said, sometimes it boils down to opening your heart and working on loving each other better, no matter what neighborhood you live in or the color of your skin. Of course that may seem like an oversimplification of so much pain, trauma, and struggle that the world has created, but I do think it is part of the equation going forward.

What a great group today for our special River Days of Action edition! Lots of new faces, and even more new voices sharing their thoughts and ideas to our probing questions as we journeyed down the river through a very special selection of stories.

We were a small group today, but an animated one. Many thanks to Graydon Swisher, our good friend from Memphis, for joining the Zoom today and sharing his insights into each story. We are excited for the assignment he left us with—the new Mississippi River stamp series is about to come out, and it’s our job to send Graydon the Minnesota stamp postmarked from Saint Paul. AND, if we can swing it, the Louisiana stamp postmarked from Baton Rouge perhaps, and any other states we can coordinate through our contacts so to complete his collection! What a fun challenge.

joined us had so much to say. What a welcome deviation! Thanks to Sarah Drake and Kathy Vance, also Ruth Alliband and as always my parents who loyally attend these sessions. Also, to Jennifer Larson who made it right at the end—we hope you got the recording and enjoyed the discussions and presentation.

What a great convening. Even more so for the voices who joined us and the things they shared than for what Tom and I had to say I think. Regardless, so many good stories and rich, thought-provoking discussions.

As we keep journeying on in this series, one month after another, it becomes more and more clear that these chosen themes of river, race, climate and home are so very important and also prevalent in the stories we heard along the Mississippi. However insulated we might think ourselves, it’s important to make contact with lives who are shaped by these issues and reflect on our own connection to these spaces and places. I truly appreciate the people who join us each month to dive into this process.

Despite some technical difficulties—which I will resolve before next month—I think webisode No. 2 went off quite well…

Mostly because of the great participation of people like Dave Eischeid, Kathy Jolly Vance, and Margaret Berrisford. I hope those of you who were unable to make the noon meetup will tune into the recording here and let us know your thoughts. We are really hoping for a dialogue, a continued sharing of voices. While our journey down the river seems so long ago now, the stories still resonate and have the ability to bring new stories to light as we journey into this day, and the next.

race, climate and home. Thanks again to everyone who joined us, especially Angela Chalk who contributed not only updates about her work with Healthy Community Services and their expanded network there in New Orleans but also her perspectives on the issue of race and home brought up in the discussion of Fred Leonard’s story.