A Big Tree Is Down

"Who will hold the sky up now the big trees are down?"  from the song The Big Trees Are Down by Doug Wood, honoring John Muir and Rachel Carson.

Just this week a friend and former colleague alerted me to the passing of Tom Fegley, former outdoor editor for the Morning Call newspaper in the Lehigh Valley.  I had the pleasure of meeting the man once when he came out to do some photography at the Graver Arboretum, and I enjoyed reading his articles for many years.  There is an excellent obituary for him in the online version of the Morning Call, which I am linking here, "Former Call Outdoors Editor Tom Fegley Dies at 72."

Something not mentioned in the article was that Tom was a teacher of ecology and environmental education before he became a newspaper writer, something he relayed to me when I met him.  He also wrote several books.  Tom was definitely a man to be looked up to as a role model.  He embodied much of the best in what it means to be a human being.  Here is what one of his colleagues, fellow writer Jim Casada, had to say about him: 

"I haven't known a lot of outdoor communicators in my 30 years or so in the business whom I considered truly iconic figures. However, Tom Fegely was one of them. Soft-spoken, deeply intellectual without being in any way obtrusive or overbearing with his knowledge and insight, he was a truly gifted writer and first-rate photographer. Beyond that, he was a delightful individual, someone who made you feel at ease almost immediately whether the setting was a backwoods hunting camp or a fancy dress banquet"

I tried to find some examples of his writing online. There are a bunch in the archives of the Morning Call, but unfortunately my skills at searching their database are not up to the task. It seems that articles are indexed solely by key words of topic, not by writers. I also tried conventional Googling and did find some additional examples. There was nothing fancy about his writing, it was just clear, thorough, well researched and informative. It wasn't this article or that article that made him great, it was the cumulative affect of his presence in the community.  He got up and brought his A game every single day, for 30+ years!  He lived his avocation for his entire life.

Here's a fun one with some current relevance, "Who's At the Feeders" by Tom Fegley for the Morning Call, 2000.  However, this one post simply cannot do justice to the body of work of this man.  

Organizing Resolutions

I'm working my way through a book called, One Year to an Organized Work Life by Regina Leeds, Da Capo Press, 2009.  I highly recommend this book, because it is a whole system already set up and designed, and you can jump right in and implement as much as you like without having to think too much about what you should or should not be doing.  So far I have been tackling my calendar, address book and contacts.

Here's a link to an article I have been using to help me weed through all my business cards and cryptic notes, "23 Ways to Organize Business Cards for Effective Follow-up"  It's an article by Stephanie Calahan from her blog which is about being "productive and organized."

My home office is in a state of transition, to say the least.  I had a "puffback" event with my furnace which covered a lot of things in my basement with oily soot, and I am in the process of transitioning to a life that is more on-the-road than ever.  So I am experimenting with taking some of my work "into the cloud" so to speak, and using Google as an easy starting point.  According to a NY Times article I read, "Meet the Life Hackers," productive people don't have any one common organizing system they all use (paper vs. electronic systems, for example) but they do have one common organizing trick--they find one flexible system and use that to organize all their stuff.  Which makes sense from an efficiency standpoint, since that way you're not wasting time shifting back and forth among media.  I've always been a paper gal, but I'm experimenting with cloud-based applications.  (The "cloud" means a Web-based, login system where somebody else stores all your data and software interface on their server computer somewhere in a "mystical cloud," and you can access it anywhere and anytime as long as you have an Internet connection and a device to display it.)  Don't kid yourself, the cloud isn't up there with Avalon, it is an office building somewhere and somebody is maintaining those computers and the data they store, and making money off of it one way or the other.  A "cloud" can go out of business, loose all your data, or get hacked, so we'll see what the future holds for this way of delivering data.  Always have plan B is my motto as far as that goes!)  And for my choice of Google--what can I say, it's free.  Yes, I know, they are spying on me.  I pity the poor guy or gal at Google who has that job!  I won't completely give up paper, because I don't want to be chained to a plug, but the new electronic management tools do have their perks-- such as potentially being "all in one" delivery systems.

I've been reading through the research I did in 1999 for my masters thesis, "Using the Internet in Environmental Education" while simultaneously trying to upgrade my technical skills to incorporate some new "best practices."  Two areas I've carved out to master are understanding news feeds and online video.  This is my first shot at the news feed part.  I'm going to blog, and I'm going to follow blogs.  I'm not sure how to follow them, because there are a variety of ways--e-mail, facebook, RSS feeds, Twitter, etc.  I'd be interested in hearing from fellow teachers out there on how you manage your interactions with the world of media.