I’m hesitant to admit this in public, but 2020 was a great year for me and my family. The world was, and still is, neck-deep in a pandemic; many lost their jobs; many lost their lives. I am not blind to the pain I witnessed in so many. Amongst all that pain, however, there were…
Author: Joshua Shinn
Everyone’s a Local in Virginia City
In early 2016, I was living in Southern California, looking for a teaching position elsewhere, and I was regularly driving 4-hours north to the rural community of Bishop, California to visit my girlfriend, Natalie. It was on one of those visits when Natalie, who is now my wife, suggested we drive north to visit Virginia…
Always Angry: Lessons Learned from Hal Runkel’s ScreamFree Parenting
In Marvel’s 2012 movie The Avengers, one of my favorite scenes is when the Chitauri, a race of extraterrestrial shape shifters, invade New York. It’s in this scene when we, the audience, get to see the Avengers assemble for the first time on the big screen— a very cool moment for an old comic book…
Navigating the Transitions
My son Jameson is two years old, and he’ll be three in another month, but it feels at times like he’s going on five or six. He says and does some of the most grown-up things I never would’ve imagined he’d be doing at this point in his young life. He quite frequently tells me,…
Perspectives on Parenting from Higher Education
I got into teaching English in higher education, in part, because I love learning. College was fun for me, even in spite of its challenges; in fact, the challenges were what made it so fun. Discovering new ideas and new ways of looking at and living in the world were invigorating. They still are— that’s…
A Long Time Coming
Super Bowl aLIVe On Sunday, February 2, 2020, I witnessed something I was dreadfully worried I’d never get the chance to see in my lifetime: the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl and became champions of the football world! What was even more impressive was that the Chiefs did it in dramatic, almost poetic,…
A New Year, A New…Mendacity
If I were to make an honest assessment of myself and the things I need to change in the year ahead, a few items would immediately occupy the top of my list: I need to lose 15 pounds of fat (and replace it with 15 pounds of muscle). I should eat less processed meat (which…
Man’s Best: A Requiem for My Dog
My beloved dog, Zoe, of 14.8 years died on July 2nd of this year. Since then, I’ve been trying in vain to swallow the jagged pill of her loss. Something embedded in my psyche, maybe some twisted cultural norm, keeps saying, “She was just a dog; you’ll get over it.” Something deeper, though, maybe my…
The Benefits of Reading Aloud to Your Children
As I remember it, when I was growing up in Kansas and Missouri, my dad, step-mother, and grandmother would read bedtime stories to me: Aesop’s fables, Little Golden Books, the Bible, and I’m sure there was even some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as well. I also remember that someone, probably my dad or stepmom, enrolled…
Andelin Family Farm: Baby Animal Days
Spring is finally here— and thank goodness! I love winter and all that comes with it, but given the extremely wet and cold nature of this last one and the fact that I recently spent 12-hours stuck in the snow on Donner Pass, I’m glad warmer weather has arrived. So in the spirit of spring,…
Rhythm & Sol: A Music Career in the Making
When I was around 18 years old, I inherited a 1973 Ovation Model 1111-4 Balladeer round-back guitar. One of my grandmother’s tenants had abandoned it in her rental property in Kansas City, and I happened to stumble across it one summer’s day while I was helping her clean out the storage room. It was a…
The V&T’s Candy Cane Express
Take a journey on the V&T Candy Cane Express to usher in Christmas. Be forewarned: you will be smiling, laughing, singing, snacking and feeling merry.