18
vernonia’s
voice
october
in other words
2008
A Boy Named Alex
By Dede Webb
Let me tell you about a boy named Alex.
I first met Alex at the kid’s fishing derby during Jamboree. As we
were setting up he approached several of us and asked if we had some
work he could do. We told him that we did not have any work… sorry.
My husband, Don, and I were at the information booth on Sun-
day of Jamboree and Donna Webb came by. While we were visiting I
noticed this boy across the street going thru the garbage can. I said to
Donna, “Isn’t that the same boy that was at the fishing derby looking
for work?” Donna replied, “He approached me looking for a job. At
first I couldn’t think of anything for him to do, and then I told him he
could have all the cans in the garbage bins”. She gave him a garbage
sack and gloves and made arrangements at the Lions booth for him to
leave his cans there until the end of the day. At the end of the day he
had too many cans to take home on his bike so Donna had her daughter,
Erin, come down and follow him on his bike to his house with all the
cans in her car for him.
Several days later, as I was leaving Park Drive, Alex was wait-
ing to cross the street and he motioned for me to go. I rolled down
my window and said, “Aren’t you the boy that was collecting cans at
Jamboree?” He replied that he was. I then ask him if he made a lot of
money. He said, “I made $40.60. It was enough to buy my BB gun.” I
replied, “That’s great, good job.”
Donna has since given him more cans and has seen him at the
Country Market offering to help people bring their purchases to their
cars. She has also seen him working outside one of the businesses.
Donna told him she had some cans he could have and he asked,
“Where do you live because I can’t go past the green bridge.” He
planned to ride his bike to get them, but she said there were too many
for him to carry on his bike. After calling his parents to see if she could
give him a ride they preceded to her house for the cans.
I’m sure many of you know this young boy as you have probably been
approached for a job. He is not looking for a hand out; he wants to work.
We have been quite impressed by this 10-year-old boy, and since
I live on this side of the green bridge I’m sure he will be getting my
cans from now on.
His parents need to be commended as they are evidently teaching
him that if you want things in this life you must work for them.
Some day I expect to see him on TV or in the newspapers as the
CEO of some large corporation and then I can say, “I remember him”.
Since I wrote my article on Alex, there has been another incident
that I wanted to share.
The latest sighting of Alex was at the First Friday event. He was
promoting s’mores that they were selling and getting a job or two.
During the evening he asked Donna if she got paid for working
there and she replied, “No, I am just a volunteer.”
As they were packing up at the end of the evening Donna asked
Alex to help him carry some things for her and on the way to the car he
said, “I won’t charge you for doing this, I’ll be a volunteer.”
Darn, you gotta love that kid.
Consilience: Light
By Erika Paleck
CONSILIENCE: The joining together of knowledge and inspiration across disciplines to create a uni-
fied framework of understanding.
Or, to put it simply in my case, it is gathering as much knowledge as possible to try to create my own per-
sonal mythology about how the world works. We all do this by using different tools but hardly ever all the same
tools at the same time. Sometimes we read a book or listen to friends. Sometimes we do something stupid and
get hit upside the head by the great shovel of stupidity, one of the best tools of all for figuring things out. Maybe
it is an exercise in futility. It might be like asking the Thermos bottle how it knows when to keep hot things hot
and cold things cold: it doesn’t know, nor does it need to.
But while we don’t know how it all works or why we are here, we do know some of the tools that allow
us to live life on a higher level of awareness--that elevate our conscious states so that we may more fully be
ourselves. In some schools of thought, this is a state of grace, enjoying God’s favor for no particularly obvious
reason. Athletes call it being in the zone: when a hundred mile an hour fastball coming at you looks like slow-
pitch softball, or you can sink a three-pointer at the buzzer as though the basket sucked the ball right out of your
hands. Poets and songwriters call it the Muse, when the lyrics simply write themselves. These are the moments
when we are so alive and in tune with the world however it works that we can function at our utmost abilities.
And what can help take us to this place?
Various chemical and ritual combinations have been used as we’ve sought the keys to creativity and ath-
letic achievement. Commonly known are the stories of Samuel Taylor Coleridge beginning his poem “Kubla
Khan” while under the influence of opium, or great athletes superstitiously repeating behaviors for years to stay
in or get back to the zone. Stories abound of baseball players not changing their underwear or shaving while
they are in the zone or eating the same meals day after day after day. To each of us, in our own way, this state
of super-consciousness is precious.
So how do we legally touch these gossamer threads of grace and enchantment? Light is one tool, some-
thing almost so banal in our everyday lives that we overlook it until the lights unexpectedly go out. Yet, it is
one of the most powerful forces in our lives and on the planet, if not the universe.
Let there be light, begins the Bible, because without it, there is nothing. We are nothing, and there is no
matter, no life, no end because there was no beginning.
Did you know there is coherent and incoherent light? But it makes sense on an intuitive level when you
realize that our incandescent lighting is incoherent light, while the light from the sun we describe as coherent
light. We’ve all had those defining moments where our minds have slipped off their leashes of ego and the task-
driven world. Suddenly we find ourselves parked right smack dab in the middle of where we are, intoxicated
by the beauty of sunlight through a sparkling wet cobweb or the mist rising through colorful trees in an early
autumn morning. Or we’re house cleaning and stopped dead in our tracks by the beauty of a dust mote passing
through sunlight. Not dust floating under lamplight or fluorescent light, but sunlight.
Is it a few seconds? Or is it eternity, this flash of wonder that grasps us, filling us with calm and pulling
us solidly into a space between now and then, dark and light, that space between heartbeats —that moment
when we are really, deeply, truly, authentically, fundamentally alive and in tune. Are we even here on those
occasions? Or have we left behind a world of illusion and stepped into the real world, into an existence so pure
and powerful that the moment captured in our memories can pull us back into it with intensity so exquisite that
it brings tears to our eyes.
I don’t know why the physicists call sunlight coherent light. It must be with a finely developed sense of
irony that we examine how coherent light can knock our precariously erected perceptions and notions of reality
out of kilter and cause us to question just where are we, anyway? One minute I’m standing in the driveway
under a tree, and the next I’m with the clouds scudding between the hills across the summer sky. This is coher-
ence? Or is this madness?
Or is this a moment of crystalline sanity where we perceive the differences between shadow and sub-
stance, form and function with acute clarity?
So if light is a tool of enlightenment, has it helped me come any closer to figuring out how the world
works? Not really. If anything, I have way more questions than ever before. But I’d rather know I don’t know
and see clearly than continue seeing the world through veils of ignorance. This way, anything is possible.
It’s not something we talk about in normal conversation while standing in line at the Mini-Mart with our
bags of whole-wheat flour, head of lettuce and frozen pizza. But suppose we did? Can you imagine what a
difference it could make?
“Hey, Kate, how’s it going?”
“Oh, pretty well. My back’s been acting up again, but, you know, I had the most incredible moment this
morning when I walked by my neighbor’s yard. She had just watered, and the color in the roses was so beautiful
I had to stop and compliment her. First time we’d spoken in months. Back doesn’t bother me any more, either.”
“I know just what you mean. I was looking at the shadows under the trees the other day, and I was won-
dering, would the tree exist without the shadow?”
“Say, that’s a good one. Well, be seein’ you. Gotta get home and wash my windows. Not supposed to
rain for a couple of days, you know. Don’t want to miss anything!”
Qualified.
Experienced.
www.RetainJudgeGrant.com
“Judge Jenefer Grant has demonstrated the qualities Columbia County deserves in a Circuit Court Judge.
She is fair, experienced, hard-working and has excellent judicial temperament.
She is committed to the rule of law and to ensuring justice for the citizens of Columbia County.
I am pleased to have appointed a judge of her caliber to the Columbia County Circuit Court.”
Governor Ted Kulongoski
Judge Jenefer Grant has served the people of Columbia County with fairness, impartiality and an understanding
of the law. I proudly endorse Judge Grant's election because of her mature judgment
and the respect she demonstrates for all who appear before her.
Betty Roberts, Former Oregon Supreme Court Justice
experience
Columbia County Judge, June, 2007-present
Columbia County Commission on Children and Families, 1997-2007 (Vice-Chair)
family
Columbia County Local Public Safety Coordinating Council
Judge Grant is a native Oregonian,
Columbia County Legal Aid, 1997-2007 (Board President)
and lives in an 1890 historic home
Attorney in private practice, St. Helens, 1997-2007
in St. Helens with her husband,
Charles, their three year old
daughter, Daphne, and canie
friends Jordi and Bella.
Columbia County Sheriff Supervisory Authority
(District and Circuit Courts, Juvenile Court, and Rainier, St. Helens and
Scappoose Municipal Courts)
Adjunct professor, Portland State University School of Business, 1996-1999
Columbia Rotary Club, St. Helens
Northwest Oregon Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Brad Witt, State Representative,
House District 31, Columbia County
Tualatin-Valley Firefighters Union, Local #1660
Barbara Roberts, Governor of Oregon 1991 to 1995
Cheryl Young, Mayor of Columbia City
Sally Harrison, Mayor, City of Vernonia
Randy Peterson, Mayor of St. Helens
Cathleen B. Callahan, City of Clatskanie, Prosecutor
Jolene Jonas
Nancy A. Federici
Shirlee Doughtry
Earl Fisher
Susan Easley-Conn
Charlotte Hart
Teri Powers
Glen Mark
Rayette Barger
Jodi Gartman
Marsha McDonough
Mike Miliucci
supporters
"Judge Grant's tenure as Columbia County Circuit Court Judge has been marked with
sound judicial temperament and adherence to the rule of law."
Hardy Myers, Oregon Attorney General, Oregon's Top Law Enforcement Official.