One of my readers, Mo Charbonneau, just send me a link to Cool Mind, Warm Heart, written by Steve Roberts who describes himself as “a servant to those who consider their work in the world a spiritual adventure.” Mo says his essays “His essays sometimes make me cry, almost always make me laugh, and usually cause my heart to be a little more open. He lives in the Green Mountains of Vermont on his Sun Bear Farm where, among other things, he builds communities of stone people and photographs them. His essays, whimsical drawings, and photographs can be viewed at his website, which is also the name of his book of essays: www.coolmindwarmheart.com.” You can subscribe to “My Two Cents” (essays) and “Inner Ink” (drawings) there as well.
I met Steve perhaps almost four years ago. Who he is and the words he writes continually remind me of who I really am. Here’s a paragraph from his ”Symbols of Friendship” essay:
Among the names I’ve been called in polite company are corporate shrink, mentor, strategist, creative director, writer, speaker and man who views the world from Pluto. And while I answer to these IDs, life’s too short to take them seriously. Everything I do worldly-wise serves a single intention: to help myself and others answer life’s two most important questions: What’s going on, and what’s the healthiest choice I can make in this moment?
Utne Reader sifts through 1,500 periodicals, skims hundreds of websites and blogs, and clambers over a mountain of new books to present the best the alternative press has to offer. Unfortunately, the magazine they deliver is only about 100 pages long, so they can’t reprint all of the fresh ideas, deeply-reported journalism, and vivid portraits they read. Here are their best of the best for 2011.
