Shining Light: Revealing Conversations with Dedicated People

Shining Light is a collection of 22 revealing conversations, including black and white portraits, with people who share amazing stories about their lives. I have often wondered, “What a fascinating story. How come I’ve never heard of this person or their work?”
“No one ever asked,” they usually reply, shrugging
I think the real answer is they never sought the spotlight. They are completely engaged in their work, not seeking publicity for their efforts.
In all of the 22 interviews published here, I felt I have developed a certain friendship with the other person. That is not simple journalistic fact gathering. And when the other person began to share very personal life details, I was uncomfortable at first, but learned that was why I had been called to this work -- to be a confidant, and with their permission, to share with you, the reader, what they had told me in their story.
You will meet people such as:
John Shaffner - cowboy poet and chuck wagon cook
Will Morton - carousel conservator
Marjorie Lansing Porter - Adirondack ballads collector
Dr. Bonnie Clarke - Japanese Relocation Camp archaeologist
Badger Puthoff - Mountain man re-enactor
Mike Keefe - Pulitzer prize winning editorial cartoonist
And so I would have to agree with Muriel Rukeyser who said, “The universe is made of stories, not atoms." Ms. Rukeyser was an American poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism.