Following on my recent Appreciating America: Notes from New York, it seems appropriate to take a look at the neighborhood where I live. One of the delights of travel is the urge to share, to satisfy one’s curiosity, and the learn about how other people live. I’m certainly lucky, and I get a lot of …
Personal History
An Enchanting Distraction: Le Grand Meaulnes
Having been re-introduced to Alain-Fournier’s Le Grand Meaulnes back in March, when I was preparing for a wedding at which I would read selections from the novel, I’ve had a grand time. As I became reacquainted with the book, I decided to read it again, and I’ve just finished. I can’t remember a nicer literary …
Passion – The New Ambition?
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is having some fun with its magazine this month. Holland Herald, tucked into the pocket at each seat, is always a good read, and for August KLM the magazine has shaped itself as an “issue subject.” The editors are calling it “the passion issue” and it’s full of interesting, sometimes charming, …
Appreciating America: Notes from New York
The title is a bit off, for these thoughts are not an extensive commentary on life in New York. Nor is this to be the first of one of those “notes-on-living-in-the-big-city” series of essays. This is simply a brief excursion into an appreciative few words about where I live and why I – like so …
Murdering Humanitarians – Hatefulness at Large
Is there any way to end the hatefulness in the world? I am shocked to read two lead stories in today’s papers, both on the front page of The New York Times. One story describes the angry resistance to building mosques in some parts of America. While the controversy over the proposed mosque and cultural …