“In such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners.”- Camus
Christmas comes in 2 days so likely I’m too late with this entreaty, but perhaps you will consider it for a post-Christmas surprise. Buy books for those you love. Buy books to treat yourself. Put your phone in a cabinet, your iPad in a closet, turn the TV off, give your headphones to the dog. Read books and encourage others to read them as well. Let me go to another […]
read more
The voice was close to my ear. At a corner facing streams of trucks and cars and mad men on electric scooters and skateboards, the voice said, “Careful. Careful. They aren’t looking.” The black man in my ear was dressed in a black cloth coat, a newsboy’s cap and elegant tie. Unnamed, he announced his history to me on that street corner. This is what I remember. “Thirty-two years in the […]
read more
At 72 the surprise of frailty when one’s body has been strong is a tonic, a shot of humility that does not go down easily but is a necessary reminder of how quickly all of this world will be gone. Recently, I ate a meal of bad curry and shrimp, a dish I don’t think I will be able to look at ever again. It knocked me off my feet […]
read more
Is there ever a time when beauty should fall from our lives or when it ceases to have meaning? As a prisoner in Auschwitz, desperate every day simply to survive? In the FSB detention cells of Kherson? Other situations and places come to mind – it is hard to imagine beauty offering solace anywhere power is absolute. But even in those regions of boundless suffering, comradeship and thus love can flourish, that priceless […]
read more
