This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

No, I am not taking you to Disneyland to hear that famous song, “It’s A Small World After All.”

I am just reporting what happened the other day when my wife and I were in Oliver, British Columbia, Canada, to watch a girls’ golf tournament, including a team from Oregon.

So, on the first day of the tournament, I was walking along with a woman from Wyoming.  Her daughter was in the same group as the girls from Oregon.

We greeted each other and I learned this:

We grew up about 15 blocks from each other in Portland, Oregon and she attended Madison High School, as I did.

Of course, the fact is that I was quite a few years ahead of her at Madison.

But think of the odds:  We drove eight hours from Oregon to watch the tournament and she flew in from Wyoming.

Small world.