Steve Fernlund and The Long Way Home

I wasn’t very old the first time my mother told me a parable that she was to repeat many times while I tried to grow up:  “'I complained about having no shoes until I met a man who had no feet."  I never had more than two pairs of shoes in those days - one for church and funerals, and one for everyday wear. I don’t believe she said that just about a pair of shoes, but in hindsight and with the passage of time, I think she used that to encourage me to cultivate gratitude and perspective. Gratitude for what I had and the perspective to see that others had less than I did. She taught me empathy, and that has served me well. I thought about this the other night when I was tossing and turning in the dark, wrestling with my pillows. In recent years, I’ve been uncomfortable sleeping with every pillow I tried, and I’ve tried many.  I may blame my pillows for disrupting my sleep, but there may be many other causes, not least an aging and infirm body that stiffens up if I don’t kee...