Excited, I wake early, eager to break from an ordinary day at the office to attend a conference promising friendly colleagues, interesting…

Midwestern prairie strikes me inconsolably barren when I first visit: vast swaths of flat earth, featureless corn fields, incessant wind, brutal heat.

Perched on the front porch of the house I occupy in a small-city, residential neighborhood, a couple strolling the sidewalk sees me and stops.