I love the idea of traveling by train. I speak well of Amtrak in conversations with friends, I think Amtrak has a good heart, it has been good to me at times, it apologizes for its mistakes, and it suffers from a long history without a strong support system. But over and over, and over and over and over and over again, Amtrak lets me down. It’s time to get out of this abusive relationship.

The best part of my day was at the Princeton Library. (Photo: Paula Morrow)

My presentation at the library in Princeton, Illinois yesterday was terrific – the kids were curious about Whitney, and it was a pleasure to meet their parents and grandparents as they came to our table afterwards for signed (and Brailled) copies of Hanni and Beth: Safe & Sound. Princeton really was a sweet little town, and Paula Morrow, the Youth Services Librarian, treated Whitney and me like royalty. Everything was swell, until the 1 pm train back to Chicago didn’t arrive.

No announcements were made at the Princeton station. Why should they bother? Everyone knows Amtrak trains almost always run late. We all just shrugged and sighed. The two-hour wait became a support group meeting, all of us sharing stories of previous train delays and missed connections. Whitney served as a therapy dog — I took her harness off so passengers could pet her and give her belly rubs. Our train was supposed to be back in Chicago by 3:15 p.m., and I thought Whitney and I might stop by my office at Easter Seals Headquarters at Willis Tower on my way back from Union Station. Maybe at 5 I’d meet Mike for happy hour at the piano bar at Sullivan’s. But we had another delay as we approached Naperville and didn’t arrive in Chicago until after six.

I still love Amtrak enough to have applied for their Amtrak Residency. The writing fellowship is new this year, designed “to allow creative professionals who are passionate about train travel and writing to work on their craft in an inspiring environment.” Selected writers get round-trip train travel on a long-distance route, on-board meals, and a private sleeping roomette with a desk and a bed. The following letter was waiting in my in-box when I finally returned home yesterday:

Dear Amtrak Residency Applicant,On behalf of Amtrak, I’d like to thank you for submitting your application. The response from the literary community has been absolutely tremendous and we are very grateful to have had the opportunity to read so many heartfelt applications. We had over 16,100 applications and had the difficult challenge to select only 115 semi-finalists. The quality of applications was high, which made our decisions even tougher. We evaluated each applicant based on the quality and completeness of their application package, as well as the extensiveness of their social community and ability to reach online audiences with content.

After carefully reviewing all the applicant packages, I regret to inform you that your package was not selected to move forward in this year’s residency selection.

Any self-respecting person would leave a relationship after receiving a rejection letter like that from the same folks who made me (and a lot of other passengers) very late. Not me, though. I don’t feel safe in Chicago’s bus station, and I can’t drive. I love visiting libraries and schools all over the state –and the country — with my Seeing Eye dog, though, so I can’t break up my relationship with Amtrak. I’ll continue to support subsidies for Amtrak, I’ll hope for positive change, and I’ll keep reminding myself to feel grateful to have train travel as an option at all — otherwise how would Whitney and I have ever met all those wonderful people in Princeton yesterday?!

Whitney, upon graduation from The Seeing Eye.

She graduated from a great school, scored well on her tests, and she participates in a whole bunch of extra-curricular activities. And so, it should come as no surprise to you that tomorrow morning the genius Whitney leaves for Princeton.Princeton Illinois, that is. Whitney and I will be boarding the Carl Sandburg Amtrak train early tomorrow morning and heading to Princeton to give a presentation at the Princeton Public Library:

July 10 (Thursday) 10:30 a.m.
Princeton Public Library
PAWS to Read Program: Whitney and Beth: Safe and Sound
698 E. Peru St.
Princeton, Illinois
www.princetonpl.org/

Princeton is a small (population 7,700) town 100 miles southwest of Chicago, and it has a rich history: before the Civil War, it was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Youth Services Librarian Paula Morrow will meet us on the train platform (“It’s a small station,” she told me) and treat us to coffee at the Four and Twenty Diner before we head to the library.

Whitney and I are both looking forward to this break from the city and our chance to meet the fine folks in Princeton. Check out the blog next week, I have a feeling I’ll have stories (and pictures) to share.

I’m still a little out of rhythm after the events of the past few weeks. I think it’s been the past few weeks. Anyway, like I said.

In the course of trying to re-enter routines, I’m beginning to do my usual mishmash of online reading. One of the things I just bumped into via The Beachwood Reporter was an op-ed piece published in the LA Times. It’s well written and sums up a lot of what I, and I’m sure others, have been thinking lately with regard to Iraq. And it triggered some thinking that’s been rattling around the back of my skull for some time.

I’ve been to a fair number of ballgames the past few years. And for some time now, Major League Baseball, at every game, singles out a member of the armed services to be honored. They are introduced, brought onto the field, and roundly applauded. And every time I’m a little conflicted. I’ve talked to other people who have the same reaction, but it’s a difficult thing to articulate for fear of appearing to  denigrate the honorees. For me, though, it’s not about them. They’ve done and are doing their jobs, admirably. It’s about us, in the stands. Because I can’t help feeling like it’s more about making us feel good than them. Or to perhaps to assuage some guilt because, well, unlike in Viet Nam or Korea or the World Wars — when soldiers were drafted, the sacrifice is a lot less common to all of us.

Also because for reasons outlined in the LA Times op-ed, asking our armed forces to go to Iraq was a tremendous disservice to them. (Not to mention the–at the minimum by all estimates I’ve seen–100,000+ Iraqis who’ve been killed during the war.)

I’ve always felt this way. I didn’t want to. Back when everyone was reeling from 9/11, I remember that things looked different. It was hard to know what to believe and what not to believe. But. Even then, there was good information — though not necessarily as well reported as it should have been — that the rationale for the war was bogus. In fact, the no-fly zones and other harassments of Saddam Hussein that began with President George H.W. Bush and continued under President Clinton had worked. Hussein was not a threat outside his borders, but he was still able to maintain control within them. (Which we’ve learned is a pretty neat trick.)

When I listened to Colin Powell address the U.N. during the sunup to Iraq, I really wanted him to convince me that there were WMDs. Because it was clear we were going come hell or high water. But as I listened, I thought to myself, “Where’s the goods?” And I just got a nauseated feeling.

I have no delusions that any action I could’ve taken individually back then could’ve stopped it. We had leadership that took advantage of our collective fear, we succumbed to our fear, and our major media went along. We all failed.

But next time, and there will be a next time, I’m going to try harder to be sure reason is heard. Which is probably the greatest tribute we can give to the people in the armed services.

Your kind and thoughtful words the past month have meant a lot to Mike and me, and they serve as a reminder of just how fortunate – and grateful – we are to have such amazing friends in our lives.

Two of those amazing friends were featured in national publications last month. If you recognized Jill Foucré in a profile in The Wall Street Journal or Kevin Goldstein’s name in a cover story in Sports Illustrated, that’s because you read about them here at the Safe & Sound blog first.

A photo from Marcel’s grand opening gala. That’s Jill in the middle, flanked by her sister Jenny, and Jenny’s husband Dean.

Jill is a dear friend of mine from high school. I first wrote about Jill here in 2011 when I was invited to the exclusive “Friends and Family” grand opening of Marcel’s Culinary Experience, her culinary retail store and cooking school in Glen Ellyn, Ill. I blogged about her again when I took a cooking class at Marcel’s the next year.

Jill was profiled in The Wall Street Journal as part of a series called “Second Acts” that looks at the paths people are taking in their 50s and beyond. Jill was 51 when she left a career as Chief Operating Officer of UnitedHealth Networks (a division of UnitedHealth Group Inc.) and opened a combination cooking school and retail shop. From the article:

She is working as many hours now as she did as a globe-trotting executive, but she says she prefers her new life, especially given what she sees each day.
“Customers are always in a good mood—cooking a great meal with friends, having a glass of wine, and just chatting and relaxing,” says Ms. Foucré. “Food brings people together.”

If you’re in the area, treat yourself to a visit to Marcel’s — the store is as terrific as the owner.

Now for our friend Kevin Goldstein. He’s the Director of Pro Scouting for the Houston Astros, and I wrote about him last year when he invited Mike and me to join him on the field at White Sox Park before a game against Houston.

That’s Kevin at home with his favorite pooch Otto.

I got to know Kevin back in the 1990s, when he was working with Mike at a start-up company called Spyglass. Kevin is smart, and he’s computer savvy, too, but so were most of the people I met at Spyglass. Kevin stood out, though.

I think he was the youngest person working there, and Mike says Kevin was one of the smartest. He paid attention to new-age baseball stats (otherwise known as sabermetrics) long before the book Moneyball was published, and he knew about minor league prospects long before anyone else did. When Mike left Spyglass, we moved to North Carolina. When Kevin left Spyglass, he moved to baseball.

Kevin started writing for Baseball America, and then moved on to write for Baseball Prospectus. He developed his own email prospect newsletter and started envisioning working for a Major League club someday.

That day came in 2012, when Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow contacted Kevin for an interview and offered him a job.

Last month the Houston Astros were on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The cover story explored Houston’s radical plans to rebuild their team and described Kevin as a respected writer who had never worked in pro baseball before joining the “Nerd Cave” behind the scenes at the Houston Astros. Kevin is quoted in the story, and of course Mike and I root, root, root for the Astros now –unless they are playing the White Sox.

A documentary about Roger Ebert called “Life Itself” opens nationwide tomorrow, July4. I just heard the filmmaker interviewed on Fresh Air, and it sure sounds to me like Roger Ebert would give his documentary a thumbs up. Here’s a post I wrote a few years ago, when his memoir by the same name was published.