Want to Know Your Dad Better? Ask Him Questions.

Final resting place for my father's ashes.

A FATHER'S DAY REFLECTION
 
My father's passing 20 years ago is still very fresh in my mind. A Father's Day NYTimes article brought these memories to mind.

The call came at three in the morning. Calls at three a.m. are seldom packed with good news. My mom wanted each of us, the four sons, to know that dad was in the Bradenton Hospital and was dying. Miraculously, three of us arrived at the Tampa Airport within a half hour of one another, having flown in from three different airports.

As I remember it (memory is always subject to being a little unreliable) Dad's heart had gone into a-fib, quivering at 300 beats per minute. Though we'd been told he was unconscious, when we arrived, he was actually awake, though intubated and couldn't talk initially. 

Robert, my youngest brother, was there for the first few days but had to leave on Friday. On Saturday my brother Ron had a cold, and because Dad was vulnerable, Ron didn't come to the hospital that day. So it was Mom and I, taking turns being with Dad who at this point was quite exhausted. 

I'd bought a Mad magazine that morning, in part because of a very early connection with my father. Mapletown, a suburb of Cleveland, was having a sidewalk sale and we'd all gone together to see what bargans we could find. Dad bought me my first bike, for $20, and we also got a whole box of back issues of Mad magazines for a dollar. 

That Saturday in Bradenton Dad was weary, sometimes awake and sometimes sleeping, my mind grappling with things to say when he was half alert. At one point he initiated a conversation about the time he and Mom visited Susie and I in Mexico.

In the early summer of 1981 my parents visited us when we were working at an orphanage south of Monterrey. On one occasion the four of us took an afternoon to visit Horsetail Falls nearby. Dad and I went for a walk to explore a trail that ran along a creek below the falls. I was a little ahead him. I jumped off a wall of rocks down to the creek bed and continued along the path when I heard a loud thump and a groan. Where Dad jumped down, the path was slippery below. His feet slid forward out from under him and he slammed to the ground, knocking the wind out of him. As I leaned over him, he regained his breath and I helped him to his feet. He was in pain, rubbing his lower back, but no broken bones. He mentioned that a rock must have been sticking out of the ground which struck his lower back muscles, producing a deep muscle bruise.

25 years later, at the Bradenton Hospital, Dad said that the place where that rock bruised him still hurt.

I loved my dad, but in retrospect I wish I'd seen the following article from the New York Times before that day. There are a lot of questions I wish I'd asked. I'm sharing this with the hope that you'll take advantage of the opportunity to get to know your own dad better while you can. When he's on the "other side" it's too late. This goes for your mom, too. 

Want to Know Your Dad Better? Ask Him These 25 Questions.
This Father’s Day, open up a new channel of communication.

Follow this link and copy all the questions that may be useful for you:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/06/18/well/family/fathers-day-questions.html?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20260622&instance_id=177573&nl=from-the-times&regi_id=123953394&segment_id=221885&user_id=c5de7e4b28d36066d31878b87617b3c2

Burnout

This is something I wrote to someone who went through a very hard experience which, for lack of a better word, has been labelled burnout.

Sounds like you went through a major crash and burn. Glad you found your way through.

I think burnout can have a range of dynamics at play. My brother, who is a psychologist, would probably say that burnout occurs when we get our work/life balance out of balance.

I like Richard Nelson Bolles' Three Boxes of Life model. Many people separate school, work and play in this manner: They go to school/college first, then work hard so they can play when they retire. Bolles recommends an alternative. He says we learn for life, work for life and play for life simultaneously. 

I believe the Judeo/Christian concept of Sabbath is, among other things, specifically designed to keep us from getting burned out. Perhaps part of the problem for some could be their consumerism convictions. I need one more boat, one more ATV, one more car, a bigger house, which all creates extra stress when you have to moonlight to pay for it all.

In 1993 I worked full time, wrote a book and a Hollywood screenplay for a Disney producer. My wife wanted me to go house hunting with her and it literally made me suicidal for a weekend (Eastertime). I said my deadline for the book was August 1 and I would look then, but she could house hunt with a friend. I was aware of my limits. We signed paperwork for the house on Aug 7 and yes, moved before winter. I finished the screenplay in Oct but never repeated that year again. Just because we CAN accomplish more doesn't mean we SHOULD always push the speed limit. (I'm talking to my self here.)

Perhaps this is one reason God included the Fourth Commandment among the Ten. The Sabbath was not intended as a burden but as a gift. The God who made us knows our limits. He understands that machines can run continuously, but people cannot. Rest is not a sign of weakness. It is an acknowledgment that we are creatures, not the Creator. The Sabbath reminds us that life is sustained not merely by our labor, but by God's provision.

Burnout often comes from believing that everything depends on us. The Sabbath reminds us that it doesn't. For one day each week, we are invited to stop striving, stop producing, and remember that God is still God while we rest. The Fourth Commandment is not a restriction on our freedom. It is a protection against our tendency to drive ourselves into the ground.

Related Link

Richard Bolles' Three Boxes of Life

The Official 2022 Duluth Dylan Fest Trivia Contest: Let's Play 40 Questions

The Official 2022 Duluth Dylan Fest Trivia Contest  
For a number of years we included a trivia night as part of Duluth Dylan Fest. For those events we always created multiple choice tests so the general public would have at least a small chance of a getting batch of correct answers. Not so with this trivia contest. This a test for the diehards, and not an SAT. 

For the record, I stumbled across this in my Dylan folder and realize I'd never shared it. In retrospect, it could have been a lot harder. I'm sure many of you will find most of this pretty easy. Have fun traipsing down memory lane.

ROUND ONE

1. Who is the bass player who has become Bob Dylan's longest running sideman? [Bonus: What year did he begin playing on the Never Ending Tour?] 

2. What year did Robert Zimmerman graduate from Hibbing High School?

3. Who was the Duluth Disc Jockey that Bob Dylan mentions in his book Chronicles, Vol. 1?

4. Which Duluth hospital was Bob Dylan born in and on what date?

5.  Which Dylan album featured Scarlet Rivera with her sizzling violin work?

6. What Dylan album was released on 9/11, the day the Twin Towers fell?

7. When the album Tempest came out, many people thought it would be his last studio album because its title was the same as what?

8. During the pandemic, Dylan released a 17-minute song about the assassination of JFK. What was the title of that song?

9. What Hibbing sweetheart is most likely the one Bob refers to in his song "Girl from the North Country." 

10. Where did young Robert Zimmerman attend kindergarten?

ROUND TWO

11. According to a Fond-du-Luth security guard who used to play Monopoly with him at Louis Kemp's house, what was Bobby Zimmerman’s favorite Monopoly piece?

12. The line “But even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked” is from what song?

13. Woody Guthrie was one of Bob Dylan’s early influences and a hero to him. What was the name of the Woodie Guthrie book Bob used to carry around with him when he first went to New York?
 

14.    Bob Dylan lived in Woodstock for a while. What was he doing while the Woodstock music festival was taking place in 1969?  [No, he was not watching the moon landing.]

15.   Dylan originally signed with Columbia Records and produced most of his studio albums with this label. Two of his albums in the mid-70's, however, were with another label. What was that label?  

16.  Who was the New York Times music critic credited with giving Bob Dylan his first major career boost?

 
17.  Which album was the first to have one of Dylan’s own paintings on the cover?

18. Mick Jagger once called this Dylan’s greatest song. The opening lines make reference to the lynchings that took place here in Duluth just over a century ago. Name the song.

19. The song "Only a Pawn in Their Game" is about the assassination of what civil rights leader in 1963?

20. In 2022 the BBC censored this great civil rights song because it has the N-word in it. What was the name of the song?

ROUND THREE

21. What childhood friend did Dylan ask to head up his unconventional 1970’s concert tour known as the Rolling Thunder Revue?

22. Dylan’s song "All Along the Watchtower" was made famous by Jimi Hendrix. What Dylan album did the song originally appear on?

23. For several years after his motorcycle accident in 1966, Dylan stopped touring or doing big concerts. In 1971, his friend George Harrison invited him to perform in a benefit concert for what country?

24. The Live Aid concert was one of the largest productions ever to use the influence of rock stars for fund raising purposes. The two guitarists who performed with Dylan were from what famous rock group?

25. In 1979 Bob Dylan announced that he had become a follower of Jesus. His first album as a Christian was titled what?

26. Dylan won an Oscar for this song. It was written for the movie Wonder Boys. What is the name of the song?

27. What year did Dylan win his Nobel Prize for literature?

28. Sometime Bob has been called a jokerman. The song "Jokerman" is the opening track on what 1980s album?

29. Half the tracks on this gold album were recorded in Minneapolis because Dylan didn’t like the results of some of the recordings in New York. What was the name of the album?

30. The Minnesota musicians were not credited on the album cover for their work on the record because the album sleeves had been printed already. It wasn’t till more than 40 years later they got recognized when the Bootleg outtakes of this album were released. What was the name of this Bootleg set?

ROUND FOUR

31. Who was the Grateful Dead songwriter whom Bob Dylan collaboratd with on Dylan’s 2009 album Together Through Life?

32. What is the name of the only Dylan song that begins with a V?

33. What song does the line, “I’m not the one you need” appear in?

34. This album is comprised of songs written and recorded during Dylan’s reclusive period in Woodstock. Members of The Band were invited there and over a period of time created/recorded seemingly countless songs, both whimsical and serious. What year was their double album The Basement Tapes officially released?

35. Levon Helm, drummer for The Band, wrote an autobiographical account of his life growing up and performing with the band. The title of his memoir was taken from the last track on disc 2 of the Basement Tapes. What was the name of that song and his book?

36. This album was Dylan’s first to hit #1 on the Billboard charts. What was the name of the album?

37. Bob Dylan is an artist and an author as well as singer/songwriter. What was the title of his first book?

38. What is the brand name for Bob Dylan’s whiskey company?

39. Bob Dylan’s uncles owned theaters in Hibbing. When he was growing up he enjoyed going to movies. What’s the name of the song that mentions Gregory Peck? The song appeared originally on Knocked Out Loaded and later appeared on his Greatest Hits, Volume 3. 

40. The Answer, my friend, is what?

ANSWERS AT THE BOTTOM AFTER THESE DYLAN PAINTINGS

"Don't Look Back" -- Limited edition giclee print. 

Blonde On Blonde (NFS)

* * * * * 

1. Tony Garnier, 1999.     2. 1959    3. Pat Cadigan    4. St. Mary’s – May 24, 1941    5. Desire    6. Love and Theft    7. Shakespeare’s last play    8. Murder Most Foul    9. Echo Helstrom    10. Nettleton School, Duluth    11. Scottish Terrier    12. It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)    13. Bound for Glory 14.   Packing his bags to perform at the Isle of Wight concert the following week.   15. Asylum Records   16.  Robert Shelton   17.  Self Portrait   18. Desolation Row  19. Medgar Evers   20. Hurricane.   21. Louis Kemp   22. John Wesley Harding.   23. Bangladesh    24. The Rolling Stones.  (Keith Richards, Ron Wood)    25. Slow Train Coming    26. Things Have Changed    27. 2016    28. Infidels   29. Blood on the Tracks   30. More Blood, More Tracks   31. Robert Hunter   32. Visions of Johanna  33. It Ain’t Me, Babe   34. 1975   35. This Wheel’s On Fire   36. Planet Waves. 37. Tarantula  38. Heaven’s Door  39. Brownsville Girl  40. Blowin’ in the Wind

* * * * *

Illustrations by the author. 
Top of page: Famous mid-60s shot projected onto background of a 1970s illustrated ink on illustration board mandala by Ed Newman inspired by Mark Tobey. 

"Don't Look Back" painting, 36" x 24" acrylic and latex pigment on panel.

"Dylan II" by the author. One of my personal favorites.

"Blonde On Blonde", 12" x 24"

Flashback Friday: The Art of Jean Birkenstein

This is a little late, but I’m still coming up for air after a whirlwind of activities this month. Jean Birkenstein (1926–2003) was a Jewish artist who, in the 1950s and ’60s, threw herself into the Civil Rights movement with courage and creativity. Married to a Black poet and living at the only non-white household on their block, she already stood out. But she went further: she opened her home as a safe, neutral space where members of Chicago’s leading gangs—the Vice Lords and the Cobras—could meet. While a teacher at Marshall High School on the city’s west side, she became an “ambassador” to the schools for those same gangs; the Vice Lords even made her a card-carrying member. She turned her house into a community center for them, an activity noted in a 1961 Jet magazine feature illustrated with her powerful paintings of African American and Native American slaves.

As an officer for CORE and the NAACP, Jean led numerous protests and sit-ins for open housing and against de facto segregation in Chicago’s public schools. Jet described her as “an artist with a profound respect for human dignity.” She was also a passionate animal lover who, when she passed, was buried in a pet cemetery.

The artist, a peer of Joan Mitchell and Edward Gorey, was mother to journalist Robin Washington. Her work is currently on display at a Chicago arts center and the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Duluth till the end of June.

The paintings on this page were originally presented in a 2019 Jean Birkestein exhibition at the Duluth Art Institute and shared on this blog.

To fully appreciate this show, and by extension Robin Washington, Birkenstein's son and a former editor of the Duluth News Tribune, it's helpful to understand the context of Jean's work.

The1961 Jet magazine feature article about her was illustrated with her paintings of African American and Native American slaves.

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Duluth meets at 835 W. College Street--a hop, skip and a jump from UMD.

Part of the exhibit includes clippings of Jean's activities outside the studio.

Robin Washington as a youth. (I wasn't the first artist
to paint my children.)

In some ways the DAI show was more of a love tribute to a mom who was more than a mom, a remarkable woman who sought to make a difference in the broken world she saw around her. Washington remembers being five and six years old going to sit-ins with his mother.

Jean's paintings reflect her passions, Robin himself being one of them.

Much more can be said, but I will let some of the paintings do some talking. 

* * * *
Related Links
My Mother’s Fight for Education Rights: The Story of Jean Birkenstein Washington
A brief bio As Remembered by Robin Washington

Throwback Thursday: How to Write Like Bob Dylan

June 2016

Every once in a while you need to organize your files so you can find documents when you want them, otherwise you'll be overwhelmed by the clutter. It takes time we usually don't have, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. 

While sorting files from my desktop this weekend (June 2016) I came across a document titled how to write like an expert. I wasn't sure if these were notes of my own making or notes scribbled down from another source, so I was hesitant to post them. It did, however, stir in me a desire to tackle the challenge of creating a blog post on how to write like Bob Dylan.

First, though, I thought I'd check to see if the topic had already been covered, by Googling it. Lo and behold, ScribblePreach has a post on this very theme, and after I read it the case was closed. I didn't think I'd top it, so I've decided to share it.

The blog's creator is Nicholas McDonald, author of the book Faker. What he's done is assemble quotes about writing from various Dylan interviews or writings. In short, it's a selection of observations drawn from Dylan's own words. The examples (comments in blue) are my additions to Mr. McDonald's 2013 post.

Bob Dylan: 11 Writing Tips
1. “It is only natural to pattern yourself after someone. If I wanted to be a painter, I might think about trying to be like Van Gogh, or if I was an actor, act like Laurence Olivier. If I was an architect, there’s Frank Gehry. But you can’t just copy someone. If you like someone’s work, the important thing is to be exposed to everything that person has been exposed to. Anyone who wants to be a songwriter should listen to as much folk music as they can, study the form and structure of stuff that has been around for 100 years.”
eg.: "Farewell Angelina."

2. “You can go anywhere in daily life and have your ears open and hear something, either something someone says to you or something you hear across the room. If it has resonance, you can use it in a song.”
e.g.: "The judge is comin' in, everybody rise" from Nettie Moore.

3. “That’s another way of writing a song, of course. Just talking to somebody who ain’t there. That’s the best way. That’s the truest way.”
e.g.: "Blowin' in the Wind"

4. “Creativity is not like a freight train going down the tracks. It’s something that has to be caressed and treated with a great deal of respect… you’ve got to program your brain not to think too much.”
e.g.; "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry."

5. “Let’s face it. You’re either serious about what you’re doing or you’re not serious about what you’re doing. And you can’t mix the two.”
e.g.: "Million Dollar Bash"

6. “The environment to write the song is extremely important. It has to bring something out in me that wants to be brought out. It’s a contemplative, reflective thing.”
e.g. "The Times They Are A-Changin'."

7. “It’s not a good idea and it’s bad luck to look for life’s guidance to popular entertainers. It’s bad luck to do that. No one should do that. Popular entertainers are fine, there’s nothing the matter with that but as long as you know where you’re standing and what ground you’re on, many of them, they don’t know what they’re doing either.”
Examples abound.

8. “The best songs to me — my best songs — are songs which were written very quickly. Yeah, very, very quickly. Just about as much time as it takes to write it down is about as long as it takes to write it.”
Some good stuff in this Bob Dylan Song Talk Interview.

9. “In my mind it’s never really been seriously a profession… It’s been more confessional than professional.”
e.g.: "Every Grain Of Sand."

10. “It is the first line that gives the inspiration and then it’s like riding a bull. Either you just stick with it, or you don’t.”
e.g.: Simple Twist of Fate; Where Are You Tonight? -- This is similar to the advice Paul Simon gave about song writing on the documentary about making Graceland. Begin with one true statement and follow it forward.

11. I couldn’t find the quote, but my writing professor in Oxford once told me Dylan always tried to take a classical story and add something totally unexpected to it. For example, in his song “As I went out one morning” Dylan takes the “Damsel in Distress” tale and adds his own twist – the Damsel is a prostitute. I’ll give 10 cents to whoever can track that quote down.
e.g.: "Seven Curses."

Source: Scribble Preach.  <<This link is no longer active.>>

My Thoughts

The best advice is found in the first admonition. Find your own voice. Don't try to write like Dylan. If you were to succeed, you'll be known as "the guy who can write like Dylan." Wouldn't you rather be known as you? Picasso could paint like Rembrandt as a teen, but had he only painted like Rembrandt, would he have broken the new terrain that liberated art from its moorings?

Study, listen, learn... and discover what you're capable of by doing it.

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Celebrate it while you can. 

When Leo Tolstoy Went to Bangladesh

One of the unexpected pleasures of writing is discovering that words have a life of their own.

You put them on paper (or more likely a computer screen), press "Publish," and they quietly disappear into the digital universe. Most of the time you never know where they go or whose eyeballs will encounter them.  

A few months ago I received an email from Bangladesh.

Nahar Trina, an author, translator and editor of the Bengali literary webzine Golpopath, had stumbled across an old post on Ennyman's Territory: Imaginary Interviews: My Visit with Leo Tolstoy. She asked if she might translate it into Bengali so it could be shared with her readers.

How could I say no?

Her note was gracious:

"I thoroughly enjoyed reading 'Imaginary Interviews: My Visit with Leo Tolstoy' on your blog, Ennyman's Territory. I would love to share this wonderful piece with Bengali readers by translating it into my mother tongue, Bengali."

She explained that Golpopath is a completely non-commercial literary publication with a devoted readership and assured me the translation would be offered simply for the love of literature.

Recently she sent another message. The 98th issue of Golpopath had been published, and somewhere halfway around the world my imaginary conversation with the great Russian novelist had found a new audience—this time in Bengali.

There's something beautifully circular about that journey.

The publication included this photo of our "visit."

A Russian writer, imagined by an American blogger in Minnesota, translated by a Bengali author for readers in Bangladesh.

It's a reminder that stories ignore borders. They travel farther than passports, politics, and maps. They move from one language into another because someone recognizes an idea, a question, or a moment of humanity worth sharing.

For me, it actually takes me back to my very frst published story, "How Important Is Prayer?" After it was published in a paper called Youth, I received letters from three continents thanking me for the insights I shared, and how what I'd written touched their lives. 

When the World Wide Web emerged in the 1990s, I created a website where I shared art and stories on my website. Before long my story Duel of the Poets was translated into Croatian. Other stories were translated into Russian and French. And two stories by my daughter, who was 12 at the time, were published in California and New Zealand.

As writers, we rarely know where our words will end up. Sometimes they stay close to home. Sometimes they wander farther than we ever will. An example of this idea is the heart of my story A Poem About Truth.

I'm grateful to Nahar Trina and the editors of Golpopath for giving my little literary experiment a second life in another language. And I'm reminded once again that the community of readers is much larger than we imagine. 

Somewhere tonight, someone I will never meet may be reading an imaginary interview with Leo Tolstoy—in Bengali. Because words have wings.

I think Leo would smile.

Link to the Bengali version:

https://www.galpopath.com/2026/06/blog-post_257.html

Link to the original imagnary interview:

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2025/08/imaginary-interviews-my-visit-with-leo.html

Nahar Trina on Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/20229982.Nahar_Trina

Phenomenon: Awakening the Wonder Within

Every now and then I get a hankering to see the movie Phenomenon again. For those who haven't seen it, John Travolta plays George, the central character, a somewhat slow-witted nice guy who has a strange experience that awakens his consciousness and begins to hyperactivate his mind. In short, he becomes a phenomenon.

The movie does a wonderful job of presenting George's struggle as he seeks to understand what is happening to him. His friends, however, are equally befuddled and the unanswered questions that arise from their own insecurities cause misunderstanding, pain and rejection. It's almost as scary to know a phenomenon as to be one.

In my opinion it was a good story well told. Like all good stories, it unearthed regions of my own soul, areas I have mined before and will mine again because I believe their are still some precious stones to uncover there.

It is a life theme to which I often return. Are we not each a phenomenon in our own way? What is the meaning of my life? What are my unique gifts? Where has my power come from from? And how much of it is unused, undeveloped, unactivated.

We use so little of our strength, our imagination, and our capacity for wonder. We become creatures of habit, living in a narrow hallway we mistake for the whole house. The wallpaper is faded, the air is stale, and the same dim light burns year after year. There are no windows to surprise us with a storm, no open doors through which music drifts, no unexpected visitors. It is safe enough. Predictable enough. And slowly, almost imperceptibly, our curiosity goes to sleep.

One of my earliest poems attempted to capture that image to some extent: "Yellow room in semi-gloom, I see no beauty in this wretched place." It's not a mindset you want to wear for the long haul, but that's a headspace I once lived in. 

Perhaps that is why Phenomenon still resonates with me. George's awakening may be exaggerated for the sake of the story, but the deeper truth is one we all recognize. Every person possesses unrealized possibilities. Every life contains unexplored rooms. There are books we have not read, friendships we haven't pursued, questions we've been afraid to ask, talents we've quietly set aside because they seemed impractical or inconvenient. We become accustomed to living on one floor of a mansion that was built with many levels.

John Updike once observed that four forces motivate and shape our lives: Love, Habit, Time, and Boredom. Love ignites us. Habit steadies us. Time wears us smooth. But boredom is the silent thief. It convinces us that tomorrow will be no different than today and that the world has already shown us everything it has to offer. It's not dramatic enough to frighten us, so we surrender without noticing. 

Somehow I suspect that the cure for boredom is curiosity. Every morning is an invitation. Learn something difficult. Call someone you've neglected. Walk a different street. Read a poet instead of the headlines. Pray. Listen. Create. Risk failure. The phenomenon we are waiting for may not arrive as a flash of light from the heavens. It may begin with the simple decision to wake up and pay attention. 

The world is still filled with mysteries, and so are you.