Kansas Snapshots by Gloria Freeland - May 1, 2026

It makes us whole

Last summer, friend Bryce included the following in a text:

70 short years ago, ... a rambunctious 4-year-old boy ran his head straight into the corner of a sharp object. ... I remember ... the back room near the X-ray machine where Mary Johnson and maybe Evelyn Mae Carlson handed supplies and instruments to Dr. Deryl Fuller as he repaired the laceration. He explained it so well that I had no fear and continued to ask him questions as he worked. I got up off the table and decided that being a doctor looked like a fun job, and for the next 70 years, I didn't waver seriously from that announced plan.

One of my roles as a professor was advising students. While most just needed help finding a course that satisfied a requirement, others struggled with what they wanted to do with their lives. Yet some, like Bryce, seemed to have that question settled long before schooling began.

Husband Art became fascinated with all things electrical well before kindergarten beckoned. He was sure it was some sort of false memory until one day while in her 90s, his mom told a story about him taking apart a floor lamp when he was still in diapers. He recalls how his family bought spread cheese in round cardboard containers that were lined with cellophane and had lids. They reminded him of the outlet boxes his dad installed while renovating their home. Art asked his dad to buy him electric plugs, which Art then put string on as make-believe wires and made "outlets" out of the boxes by pushing the plug prongs into the covers.

He learned to ride a bike when he was 6 and rode around on junk days, salvaging old radios from people's trash. He learned to repair them on his own. By the eighth grade, he was fixing TVs. That same year, he began repairing for a local shop.

Like Bryce, what had ignited a passion years earlier, later put food on the table.

When hometown friend Tom's 6-year-old son Christopher took an airplane ride in the copilot's seat, it sparked an interest in flying. Christopher vividly recalls watching the prop moving during engine start, looking at the cockpit instruments, landing at Ponca City, Oklahoma for breakfast, and seeing planes on the ramp.

At 13, he wrote to the American Airlines vice president and received an invitation to a one-day event for future pilots. Tom had to go with him because of his age.

He recently told Art, "I'm always confused when I hear someone say that they don't know what to do or change from one career to another. It seems pretty obvious for you and me."

He's now completed much of his training to be a commercial airline pilot and is hoping to make that a reality soon.

I don't remember when I first started writing, but I was young. I don't mean the "see Dick and Jane run" writing of elementary school or the high school essays we were all assigned. I chose to write poetry in grade school, to be a reporter for my local 4-H Club, to enter literary contests, and to edit the high school newspaper.

Putting photos with those words was part of it. When my folks had their 25th and 50th anniversary celebrations, I put albums together for them. A Freeland family reunion in 1994 prompted Art and me to gather materials and photos for a family-history booklet. Other special occasions have resulted in similar projects.

I was able to parlay my love for writing and photography into a career that spanned 45 years - as a reporter for Kansas weeklies, a reporter and co-manager of a Costa Rican English-language newspaper, and as a journalism educator.

My enjoyment of writing is what prompted starting this column nearly a quarter of a century ago.

My brother Dave has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. As a youngster on our farm, he had his own chickens and developed his own egg route, charging 35 cents a dozen.

With our cousin Jeff, he made shoe scrapers out of old boards and pop-bottle caps. Dave said, "We didn't know if there was any market for this type of 'invention,' but that really didn’t matter as this would take up time and seemed like fun to us!"

Today, Dave is a certified public accountant who works on his own and owns multiple real-estate holdings in Salina.

Art's cousin Kris said, "As far back as I can remember, I've loved horses. I'd watch them when driving by in a car as a kid, and still do. I'd read horse books when I could get my hands on them. ... I got my first horse for my 12th birthday. ..."

A common thread of all these stories is a feeling of you have to do it, whether it later makes financial sense or not. For Bryce, Art, Christopher, Dave and me, it led to careers.

But Kris enjoyed teaching and confined her passion for horses to after-hours. Singer Harry Chapin describes a similar tale about Mr. Tanner, a launderer.

...Of all the cleaning shops around, he'd made his the best.
But he also was a baritone who sang while hanging clothes
He practiced scales while pressing tails and sang at local shows.

But music was his life, it was not his livelihood
And it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good
And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul
He did not know how well he sang, it just made him whole. ...

Only about 20 percent of musicians can support themselves through performing music and Mr. Tanner wasn’t one of them.

Some of us find our passion early, while others take a while. It is truly a bonus if that passion can support us. But even if it can't, I think we have to pursue it in some fashion. After all, like Mr. Tanner, it's what makes us whole.