Every year, our village sets up Christmas trees near the center of town and invites various local organizations to decorate them. If you drive past on the appointed Decorating Day, you’ll see each tree surrounded by a little huddle of people with something in common: sashes on badges, logos on ball caps, dogs on leashes. [...]

I have a dear friend who loves to find pretty things at bargain basement prices and then give them away. It’s how she loves. It’s taken several decades of friendship for me understand this about her. What once annoyed me, now endears her to me even more. This little foo-foo teapot was a token of love [...]

Today was MY first day of summer vacation. When I was teaching, there were certain rituals and guilty pleasures tied to the beginning of freedom. I used to sit in the sun and read novels, yes novels, for the first full week. After I’d finished several volumes of mind-candy, I’d begin to make lists of [...]

Big brother, originally uploaded by Kelly Johnson (duna). Sometimes the violence and tragedy in the news makes me feel estranged from the rest of the world. My life is so peaceful; it’s hard to imagine gunfire and bus explosions in my neighborhood. Then I happen upon a quiet moment like this in Hebron, Israel. A [...]

cascade, originally uploaded by Kelly Johnson (duna). I’m serving on a Federal Grand Jury once a week for the next 18 months. An imposition on life? Yeah. But the perk is the excuse to be smack-dab in the middle of an amazing city on a regular basis. I’ve only begun to explore the rhythm of [...]

CPL-4, originally uploaded by Kelly Johnson (duna). I have no idea why I must photograph escalators. Without fail, when I arrive home from a day in Chicago with a full memory card, there will always be 5 or 6 images of them. Lines? Curves? Motion? That curious feeling of What’s-Around-The-Corner? I have no idea.   [...]

Illinois winter, originally uploaded by Kelly Johnson (duna). This is the view out the car window that I associate with visiting my in-laws in some central or northwestern Illinois town. The only salvation is to crank up the bass of Fleetwood Mac or BTO.

my grandmother’s Singer, originally uploaded by Kelly Johnson (duna). I came across an old letter yesterday, written to my fiance back in college. We wrote a lot of letters during those long summers apart. I was telling him about a day I’d spent with my grandmother, how we’d gone shopping for fabric. She was teaching [...]