Behind the Lines: by David Heiller

David Heiller Learning new things isn’t easy, but it sure can be fun. I bet watching students learn is one of the greatest reward for teachers. Watching your children learn is great too. Our son is picking people’s brains these days about rifles. He’s learning a lot. He’s reading about motorcycles. He’s excited about them, and expanding his knowledge. David in Morocco: A 1978 version of a selfie Our daughter is practicing her one act play parts, and getting better day by day. Her singing is getting better too because she is practicing her songs for voice lessons. She’s learning a lot, improving too, and it’s fun for her. The key word is fun. These days, playing the banjo is my favorite learning activity, although when I call it a learning activity it doesn’t sound very fun. But it is. Malika and David playing at the Askov Fair. My wife, Cindy, bought me two banjo instructional videos for Christmas. When Ι have a spare hour, I put a video tape in, and learn a ...

David Heiller We were heading off the lake on Saturday afternoon, but Tom had one more stop to make. There was a spot of blood next to one of the holes in the ice. Tom scraped some clean snow over it with his boot and tamped it down. The blood was gone, and so was the evidence of the fish he had caught. This was vintage Tom Deering. The location of Osama Bin Laden is better known than Tom’s fishing holes. Never mind that we had hiked six miles over four lakes and four portages—unmarked ones at that—or that we were on a lake the size of Denmark. Better not leave any evidence next to a fishing hole. We had started for the lake early that morning, laden with packs and sleds and ice fishing gear, Tom, his friend Ken Hupila, Ken’s two dogs, and me. Tom and a couple of snakes. It felt so good, after this strange winter of no snow, to actually head into the wilderness. We made it to Tom’s Bay in two hours. Tom’s Bay is not its real name. I can’t say the real name with...

David Heiller I remember when we were kids, every day after school was out, one of my sisters would make a pot of tea and pour us each a cup. Someone would put some cookies out; we’d sit around the kitchen table and talk about our day at school and slowly sip our cups of tea, with plenty of sugar to make them sweet, and savor them like a special treat. No matter how chilly it was outside, or if we’d got into a fight that day, or lost our best friend to another, the tea made the bad parts go away. Then later on at the supper table, Mom would make herself a cup and Grandma too, if she came down. Maybe it was the stronger kind, the kind that keeps you wide awake. She needed that, with all us kids. But probably more she needed the calm that settles around you like a quilt, when you have a cup of tea nice and warm between your hands. Malika enjoying a morning cup whilst her  hair is fixed for the day. Now we start the day with tea, every morning, my wife and I. ...