The table is set. Flowers arranged and candles burning. The house fragrant with food cooking since morning. Guests arriving with dishes that jostle for space, first in the oven, then on the table. Gathering for the meal, we’ll say grace. But what will we say? Every year, the question rises – what to say thanks […]
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“Every moment happens twice, inside and outside, and they are very different histories.” Zadie Smith Decades ago, when I was studying the who-what-when-where-why’s of journalism, we used to talk about getting the “inside story.” By this we meant the real story told by primary sources – people who experienced or witnessed the events first-hand. Today […]
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My paternal grandparents both emigrated from Germany. Each arrived alone, a teenager carrying a single suitcase. Each, like so many immigrants coming to the United States today, left behind family, homeland, first language and the familiarity that now fills my own life as the air that I breathe and the inheritance my grandparents passed on […]
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In the end the beginning Hurricanes in the south: rain measured by the yardstick, houses flattened by gusts three times faster than the average speed limit. Lights out, power lost from decades of disinvestment completed by the tailwinds passing by. Maps predicting who will be next in line, people in line for water, in line […]
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Vocation is sometimes described as a thread strung through our life that marks how and where we have followed our calling, whether it is in the work we do for a living or in how we spend our time outside of that paid work. “There’s a thread you follow,” wrote the poet William Stafford. “It […]
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People say you should not miss it. Drop everything. Prepare to travel. Watch the weather. Go as far as you must and mind the time carefully. It only lasts two minutes in any given place. Whatever you do, do not miss this chance to be in the Path of Totality when the total solar eclipse […]
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This morning, I walked my dog down to the river before any businesses were open and when we got to our town’s main street, I remembered it was the day of the Fourth of July parade. I knew this not because of signs or any activity but from the countless empty lawn chairs lined up […]
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