Like most Alaska immigrants, my roots continue to petition for equal time.

In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.

That's what the American odyssey is really about: Leaving home. Leaving home and coming home, and trying to understand the difference.

They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.

It's not like Alaska isn't wilderness - it mostly is. But most Alaskans don't live in the wild. They live on the edge of the wild in towns with schools and cable TV and stores and dentists and roller rinks sometimes. It's just like anyplace else, only with mountains and moose.

I'm real. I believe what I'm saying. If Motel 6 wasn't the type of operation they say it is - and I stay at them when I travel - I wouldn't do their commercials. That comes through on the radio, and that's what it's all about.

The difference between an optimist and a pessimist? An optimist laughs to forget, but a pessimist forgets to laugh.