Writing is Remembering
What can you do when you find yourself suddenly, and unexpectedly, in the power of someone you have offended, and they have revenge in mind? Assume the situation is one in which they can ruin your reputation, or deprive you of your livelihood, or take your life. Are there ways to handle the situation, to … Continue reading Softening the Hearts
Cando ke Rajkumar Kulfi, aka "The Wonder-Dog." I don't remember when I first came across the saying, "Be the person your dog already thinks you are." My wife says it might have been on a bumper sticker on a car in our old neighborhood in the States. Regardless of when I first became aware of … Continue reading Splendour and Travail
Robert Frost's home in Shaftsbury, VT.Photo by Beth Ben-Avraham, ©2020 All Rights Reserved. Have you ever admired a person and then learned about something they said or did, or didn't say or didn't do, that caused you to examine your feelings about them? It's happened to me on more than one occasion. Often, quite often, … Continue reading Weak Creatures of Clay
Cincinnatus Receiving Deputies of the Senate. By Alexandre Cabanel, 1843. Beginning in the ninth grade, I took Latin each year in school until I graduated from high school, a total of four years. Apart from my classes in English, Latin was the single most influential subject I learned before college. I'm grateful to have had … Continue reading For Every Crooked Politician
"Venice. The city of mirrors, the city of mirages." Photo by Vlad Hilitanu, Unsplash. I own an edition of The Harvard Classics. One of the frustrating things about it is the process I have to follow to locate something I want to read. All the books have the same front cover; the back covers are blank; … Continue reading Books, Covers, and Masks
Blind child making the acquaintance of a bit of statuary at Oklahoma School for the Blind. March 1917. By Lewis Hine, 1874-1940, photographer. Walking home after Morning Prayers, I pass a spot where a kind-hearted woman feeds homeless cats. The woman knows her customers well. She puts several servings of food down. She sets them … Continue reading With Eyes That Could Not See
Jacob Blesses Pharaoh Illustration by Owen Jones from "The History of Joseph and His Brethren" (Day & Son, 1869). In the 3rd century BCE, a Greek named Pyrrhus ruled an area in the western Balkans called Epirus. He is remembered for two battles he fought and won against the Romans—the first in 280 BCE, the … Continue reading Far More Pain Than Contentment
Breakfast in the Loggia. John Singer Sargent. Date: 1910. I know a woman who spent her summers growing up in a small town on the coast of Maine. One day, in the town’s library, she noticed a row of books atop one of the bookshelves. The books attracted her attention; they were classics, dust-covered, and … Continue reading How Frail I Am
Photo by Chris Child, unsplash.com. It was lovely out in the country. Summer had come; the wheat in the fields was golden, the oats were still green, and the new-mown hay had been built into haystacks in the meadow, where the storks walked around on their long red legs talking to each other in Egyptian.The … Continue reading He Had Grown into a Swan
Shadows. Moonlit Night. Isaac Levitan. Original Title: Тени. Лунная ночь. Date: c.1885 In The Voyage of the Beagle, Charles Darwin writes about a “Sacred Tree.” He came upon it while traveling in the valley of the Rio Negro on his way to Bahía Blanca in Argentina in the company of an Englishman, a guide, and … Continue reading Between Hope and Fear
