July 30th, 2022

A lot has happened since my project in Ethiopia ended abruptly in March, 2019, because of the Coronavirus Pandemic. This has been a difficult, often painful, time for most of us. I am no exception. Hopefully adversity brings resilience, understanding, even wisdom. I will settle for any one of these. I cannot launch into my new, remarkable adventure in Bhutan without a tip to the two plus years that brought me to this next journey. 
The last two years have brought an end to a lot of journeys. 

I spent my last year of over 20 years teaching at Missouri Western State University. My career at MWSU was very rewarding. I started pro se clinics for divorces and name and gender marker changes, an innocence clinic in Advanced Legal Research, Civil Rights tours of Washington D.C. and Memphis, and international research, writing, and publication opportunities for students in Asia, Africa, and Europe. The Human Rights Day Observance shown below continues thanks to Social Work faculty Grey Endres and I hope some of the clinics and international work will as well. 

I worked with a great staff at the NGO Midwest Innocence Project over the next year. The exonerees and clients like Ahmad were great people with amazing stories I would love to help them tell. That is what the Moth Radio Hour, a favorite podcast of mine, is doing in the photo below at the Innocence Project Annual Conference last April. I supervised the Innocence Clinic at the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Law and hope the students will find ways to reduce wrongful convictions in their careers. This was the hardest job I ever left. The clients are so compelling, changing the way future legal professionals see the broken criminal legal system and how to work in it is so important.

Education and advocacy took place outside the classroom too. The pandemic even played a role in spotlighting the problems around racism and police brutality after the murder of George Floyd. Progress in establishing lynching memorials was made, even in St. Joseph, Missouri. Columbia's lynching memorial sheds light on MU's complicity in racial injustice, a sad admission for me to make about an institution that played such a big role in my life.

For this new journey I had to say goodbye to so many people and places. It was a long process really. Leaving is hard. It was made especially hard after spending so many months not being able to get together. Fortunately, we squeezed some trips in between COVID spikes. I am grateful for all of them, but especially the ones out west with my sons Wil and TJ, and daughter-in-law Sam, the one to the Grand Canyon with my sister, and my last trip to Oregon right before I left the U.S. (the empty Kayak).

Family is the most important part of getting together and we had some great reunions. The last took place in Oregon, but we had some good times in Des Moines, Iowa, and a holiday or two at the home where Lynn and I spent half our lives together (featured below). 

Sunbridge to the next life. Native Americans considered the land our home was built on as sacred ground. They believe the spirit of the dead can walk to the afterlife on the golden beams of light created at sunset on these loess hills. They performed burial rituals. Human remains dating back 2000 years are buried nearby.
Returning a part of this sacred ground to original native prairie was a part of our stewardship of the land we had the privilege to care for and raise our children on. Our home became a part of the fabric of our family.
Leaving my home and life with Lynn has been the hardest part of this last two years. But it is time to take my next journey. 

Sunbridge to the next Journey.