Artichoke is a small dog — a Havanese poodle mix weighing about 18 pounds — so carrying him is not an issue.

Almost exactly 16 years ago, on my first day working at the Vineyard Gazette, a tall, bearded guy with long wingspan arms walked over to my desk, leaned in and said, “You look fried, you should head home for a break.”

The other night, while picking out a Christmas tree with my family, an older man approached me, holding a bouquet of holly branches. “I’m in love with your wife,” he told me.

I was talking to a fellow dad the other day, the two of us sharing a beer on the porch. “Do you think it’s more sad or weird when a kid leaves home?” my friend asked.

For a big man, Steve Myrick did not loom. Instead, he listened.

I am driving with my son Hardy on I-95 south, headed for our first college tour. Hardy is 17, a senior in high school.

You never forget your first library, especially the one you walk to on your own, step through the doors with no adults trailing you, and enter a world of books with your brand new library card.

I am being driven around the Island by my son Hardy, from Oak Bluffs to Edgartown, across to Vineyard Haven, then up through West Tisbury, Chilmark and Aquinnah.

One summer, about nine years ago, when my daughter was three years old and the Rev. Raphael Warnock came for his annual visit, she grabbed him by the hand.