I stopped for two sandhill cranes in the middle of North Fork Road this morning on my commute to work. A man behind me in a little Honda, whose day was already stressed and hurried at 8 a.m., slowed for the cranes, then blew past me in a cloud of dust. No doubt you can read my thoughts concerning said hurried gentleman in the little Honda. You'd be wrong, though.

What I really thought was "how amazing Alaska is and that there is such a diversity of people here with such diverse ... agendas."

Strange segue, I realize. But then I thought about my own agenda, and compared it with the unknown agenda of the gentleman in the Honda. My wife would say that was very grown up and quite out of character for me. But before you read another word of this, know that I am writing at work, and that it is part of a work related assignment. Know that my agenda relates to the work I do as well as my reasons for being here. And I'll be up front with you as all people should -- even to the point that we should advertise our agendas on a T-shirt.

Read on mine: "Liberal. Tree hugger. Obama bumper-stickered, social-working family man." Read that I am a die-hard "Packer Fan," "Life Long Badger" and a "Perpetual Outsider." Read: "Forever a Boy." "Day Dreamer."

Read: (OK, some small print necessary) "I came here for the beauty, the aura, the independence of spirit, to be a part of the last great place in America." Read: (or, being a social worker, it's your choice to read) "Turn off your engines in the parking lot, don't smoke around your children, be gentle and understanding of those in your community who are different than you, and give President Obama a chance."

My agenda, my T-shirt will tell you: "Pebble Poop." "Chuitna Coal Sucks Salmon Water." And, in small, bold print: "Any justification for outside corporate interests being allowed to plunder Alaska has greed at its heart."

Read on my T-shirt: "Look to the Future, HEA." Read in the bold print: "Choose Life, Not Cheap KWs."

And read that this community has some of the best kids I have ever had the honor to coach. (Way to go Drew, Mark, Alex, Chase, Dylan, Joey and Lily.). Read: "Go Seawolves!"

My agenda, my T-shirt will tell you that there is more energy and diversity of thought, and more closed-minded certainty here than anywhere else in this country. Great people. Great leadership. Yet, the handicapped still do not have ease of access in many places, and I see this huge scar in the hillside below Baycrest and the sudden vision that their T-shirt will have printed: "Development for Everyone."

I read rationales on T-shirts for the destruction of wetlands based on economics. Read: "Greed is Pretty Good" or "I Own It. So What. Mind Your Own Business."

And I read on the shirts of others: "Democrats DID IT," "Republicans Are Rotten," but I have long ago stopped wearing the T-shirt with the Texas idiot on it. I have read Palin's T-shirt with: "Let's Play Politics!" on the front, and a printed red target on her back. But I would love to remove that red target from the T-shirts of all the good pols who have been tossed into that bag of bad ones, indiscriminately and unfairly, as it sometimes turns out. Good priests, good teachers, good police and firemen. Good politicians. It all makes me chuckle -- all the diversity of agendas in this enigma called Alaska. Read: "America. Yet not."

I stopped for two sandhill cranes in the middle of North Fork Road this morning, when some knucklehead in a tiny Honda blew past me in a cloud of dust. Read: "Late for Job" or "New to Alaska and still in Outside Mode."

Instead of being mad, I was hit by the thought that Alaskans are so diverse and this land is so extraordinary that here could be that place called home. Maybe I should give it one more winter. Maybe I shouldn't push so hard to go to that little cabin in the North Carolina mountains this winter that we just bought -- because I couldn't take another Alaska winter. My wife is tougher and way more patient than I am, and she believes I certainly need a T-shirt that says: "Wimp. Cheechako."

As I write this, at work, I yearn to go outside into the nicest weather I've seen in these last two years. I didn't come here to sit a desk, and chinook are schooling off the Anchor River with the opening just around the corner. That is why I came to Alaska. That is my agenda. Read: "All Hale the Kings."

I won't miss the winters though.

Rick Telford works at the Independent Living Center in Homer.