Mr. President,
The lies you & Secretary Noem tried to feed us yesterday to justify the murder of Renee Nicole Good by your masked thugs - sorry, "the defensive actions of your ICE agents" - were exposed by videos taken by citizen witnesses. Please try again - and try harder - to tell us the truth.

Ways to Endure, Final Chapter — From Now On “My love, I was so wrong…. When I left my body, I did not go away…. I am more with you than I ever could have imagined.” –Andrea Gibson, “Love Letter from the Afterlife” [1]

Ten months ago, I posted chapter 8 of this story of my wife's nearly decade-long wrestling match with her mortality. Here's the last chapter. A 12-min. read. I hope you can take something meaningful from it.
www.davidduerblog.com/blog/ways-to-endure-final-chapter

Reading Dharma Bums on the Road — From Now On In the early days of Covid, fourteen friends from across the country decided to reach out to each other. We had graduated in 1972 from Walsh Jesuit High School, an all-boys school (at that time) locat...

This new blog post is a momentary shift from telling the story of the early years of the family that Pat and I created together. A 13-min. read. I hope you enjoy.
www.davidduerblog.com/blog/reading-dharma-bums-on-the-road

Current tone of his *truth* social posts: "Thank you for your attention to this matter, you stupid a**hole losers."

A new post to my blog, continuing the story of the early years of our marriage and family, coupled with reflections on recent events. A 12-min. read. I hope you can take something from it.
www.davidduerblog.com/blog/things-behind-things

Days of Wonder and Delight — From Now On A week after our wedding, while acclimating to the first subzero temperatures of the winter, Pat applied for a spot in the university’s married student housing. Located on Hawkeye Park Road off Mormon...

No better way to honor Father's Day than to share this piece about the new life Pat and I were building together as we welcomed little Emma Claire into our family. A 12-min. read. I hope you enjoy.
www.davidduerblog.com/blog/days-of...

NO KINGS protest in Iowa City, looking east & west on Iowa Ave.

How Pat Married Me — From Now On After returning from a four-month trip around Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, I moved into the Market Street house with Mary, Steve, Pat, and Sierra. I claimed the attic as my bedroom – mattress, milk ...

A new post on my memoir blog about how Pat and I began our life together. A 13-minute read. I hope you enjoy it.
www.davidduerblog.com/blog/how-pat-married-me

Pat + Sierra + David — From Now On Living with Pat through the nine months of her pregnancy felt like bearing witness to the unfolding of a new world. Our household – Mary, Bob, and I – watched her grow, becoming gravid, big-bellied wi...

A new blog post, about the moment in time when I realized I was becoming a part of an equation. When Pat + Sierra + David was becoming meaningful to me, something more than the sum of those parts. A 9-min. read. I hope you enjoy.
www.davidduerblog.com/blog/pat-sie...

Coming Back to Pat, March 1977 — From Now On By October 1976, Pat and I had worked alongside each other for a little over a year. For the previous four months, we’d been housemates and – on those rare moments when the moon was in a particular ph...

A new blog post about getting to know the woman I'd end up spending nearly 40 years with. Ah, the little turns our lives take. A 10-minute read. I hope you enjoy.
www.davidduerblog.com/blog/coming-back-to-pat-march-1977

OF the people BY the people FOR the people

Pat Before Me — From Now On When I met Pat, she was twenty-two years old, newly arrived in Iowa City. Over time she would let slip little scraps and shards of those first twenty-two years. She was less than forthcoming about her...

A new blog post about my wife, going back to before I knew her. Credit to my daughter Emma, who researched her family history and extracted details from her about her early life. A 9-minute read. I hope you enjoy it.
www.davidduerblog.com/blog/pat-before-me

Ceramic piece by Japanese artist Shinichi Sawada, who has nonspeaking autism. Seen at Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.

Falling for Pat & Bonnie — From Now On When I moved to Iowa City in September 1975 to take classes at the University of Iowa, I also began a job at Stone Soup, a vegetarian cooperative restaurant located kitty-corner across from the Pentac...

This piece takes us back nearly fifty years, to when I met my wife Pat in Iowa City. An 8-min. read. I hope you enjoy it.
www.davidduerblog.com/blog/falling-for-pat-and-bonnie

What happened to "I'll end the War in Ukraine on Day 1"?

3 of 10 eligible voters voted for Trump. (3.6 of 10 declined to exercise their right.) That, according to Trump, gives him a "massive mandate." Wrong again.

Ways to Endure, Part 8 — From Now On In January of 2015, after a week-long visit from Emma and Oscar, Pat posted this on her Facebook page: “I knew something would be worth five open heart surgeries in five years. Celebrate with me my fi...

Natalie Goldberg wrote, "We have lived; our moments are important. This is what it is to be a writer: to be the carrier of details that make up history." I invite you to read Part 8 of the story of my wife's long dance toward death. A 12-min. read. www.davidduerblog.com/blog/ways-to-endure-part-8

Iowa City is a nice place to live. It'd be a great place to live if it weren't in Iowa.

Ways to Endure, Part 7 — From Now On I’m looking at a page of Pat’s notes leading up to her fifth surgery (and her second at Johns Hopkins) in January 2014. Among the scribbled flotsam adrift on the white sea of the page are Gretchen Osw...

On this final day of 2024, I'm returning to the long story of my wife's final years. This segment is from 10 years ago. I invite you to take whatever is helpful from this piece. An 11-minute read.
www.davidduerblog.com/blog/ways-to-endure-part-7

Election Day — From Now On It’s November 5th, and I’m filled with nervous anticipation. After doing a few gardening chores in preparation for the winter months, I decide to do one last canvassing for Christina Bohannan, the Dem...

Six weeks past the U.S. elections, I offer some reflections on working as a campaign volunteer and some thoughts on how to move forward. An 8-minute read.
www.davidduerblog.com/blog/election-day

On my roof, cleaning leaves from the gutters, I’m distracted by a steady chek-chek-chek overhead, loud enough to set the neighborhood dogs to barking. Above me, a river of red-winged blackbirds, then another, and another, heading west. My heart is lightened, and I hold onto that. It can sustain me.