A friend left me a voice mail last week accusing me of placing a rock on her front porch.  She knew I was nuts about stone. I explained that I collect stone to sculpt, not to move around in a raw state, depositing it like some glacial erratic on friend’s porches. I did offer to take it off her hands, if it was a nice piece. This is the first time I have been charged with stone abandonment, but I do get accused of any number of lesser crimes, including making gravel, dusting up the neighborhood, or sinking the local terrain with the mass of my “waiting to be carved” pile.

I suspect we are all viewed with a combination of bemusement and curiosity. “Do you really enjoy carving stone?” (as in “what is wrong with you?”). That is why I was so amazed when I attended my first symposium. Here was a whole pack of people who could not stop talking about stone, and yet they all seemed normal… I am still amazed at the people, stone, tools, and good fun I have each year at the one or two symposia that I get to attend. Hopefully all of you will join us for at least a couple days of this experience this year at one of our three symposia. The Whidbey Island retreat will happen before you receive this copy of the Journal, but Camp Brotherhood and Silver Falls should both be excellent events. I look forward to seeing you all there.

Carve well, have fun, and wear a good respirator and protect your eyes,