APRIL 2024 MAGAZINE

 A neighborhood called “Pacific Ridge” might conjure up visions of estate homes with saltwater views, but nothing could be further from the truth in Des Moines, Washington. This small town, situated midway between Seattle and Tacoma and founded by Midwestern pioneers, was for decades home to small businesses and a beachfront Bible camp. But it began to see substantial change in the 1960s, when Interstate 5 punched through the area and suburban sprawl followed, with the paving-over of the waterfront to make room for a marina, the selling-off of small farms, and the building of high-density housing in their place.

As you sit down with your family (or framily) for Thanksgiving dinner, you probably already realize that the settlers and Native Americans at the first Thanksgiving weren’t eating cranberry sauce shaped like a can. The pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe may have eaten wildfowl and corn back in 1629, but according to an article in...

America has a long history of scattering ashes and burying bodies in hallowed soil everywhere, and even beyond our own land. The Normandy American Cemetery is where thousands of white Christian crosses, Jewish stars of david, and Islamic five-pointed stars mark the graves of our soldiers who died on French soil during World War II.Many other cemeteries scattered around our own nation are full of weather beaten headstones, stained by tall grass and choked with weeds. The grave markers are like pearls that have long ago lost their luster and, yet, are as pure as the tears shed by those who once loved these fallen soldiers.