Kansas Day - 150 Years

Happy Kansas Day - the sesquicentennial, even. The state is 150 years old today - not that the land cares about a speck of geologic time or the borders and reckonings of hominids that live on it.

You know, I wasn't so fond of Kansas when I moved here in 1984 from the Ozarks...not enough streams in this largely prairie state. It felt like much of the state was designed to torture trees. What did I expect from a place whose people felt they had to add "through difficulty" to "to the stars"?

But the prairie ecology has grown on me. And be assured, there is beauty here that will bring you to your knees.

Prehistoric sea creatures swim from our chalk into museums around the world. At least 15 species of cicadas are waiting under our feet right now, preparing to soundtrack our summer evenings. There are space rockets in the center of my city, a giant prairie dog out west and we've even got the Garden of Eden up north.

A few miles from me, a bald eagle gets ready to go fishing as I write this - yeah, not a bad place at all.