JOEY BLUM for The Chronicle

There are two common ways of being in the world. You can aggressively pursue things, stay in motion, always moving forward, or you can stay put and let the world come to you. When I studied marine biology, there were…

The uncle, Wes Strange I learned to stretch wire from my “second father,” my Uncle Wes, who taught me a lot about tools and land. Wes was a 30-year-career Army Chief Warrant Officer. When he retired in 1965, he began building…

Nancy and Ruby Blum in 2018 at home near Creswell. Ruby is a health policy adviser for Dallas County in Texas. I am a biologist by education. I believe in data and intelligence more than I do in prejudice or magical…

Gen MacManemin (1916-2012) was in her early 60s when Nancy and I lived on her property. We spent a year living in a rustic apartment above her goat barn, beginning our transition toward rural life. The land sat atop a wooded…

Above: The author, right, with the Captain and Fishing Master, on the Ebisu Maru. Below: Quantifying fear. In November of 1982, I was in the Bering Sea, working as a biologist/observer for the National Marine Fisheries Service and assigned to…

Joey Blum When I began showing symptoms of the Coronavirus, our daughter Ruby, who is a health adviser in Dallas, Texas, told my wife, Nancy, and I to separate from each other in the house. “We’ve been married for 38…