Last weekend I went to Tahoe for a Belden family wedding. It takes me some time to realize I have not been in Northern California, on my own, since 1991, with the exception of three days after Mom died, in 2014. It takes me longer to note that I have let go or walked away … Continue reading What Happens in Tahoe, Stays in Tahoe
travel
Absolutely Six
A poem compresses much in a small space and adds music, thus heightening its meaning. The city is like poetry: it compresses all life, all races and breeds, into a small island and adds music and the accompaniment of internal engines. The island of Manhattan is without any doubt the greatest human concentrate on earth, … Continue reading Absolutely Six
Space Time Life Review
When you travel,A new silenceGoes with you,And if you listen,You will hearWhat your heart wouldLove to say.A journey can become a sacred thing.Make sure, before you go,To bless your going forth,To free your heart of ballastSo that the compass of your soulMight direct you towardsThe territories of spiritWhere you will discoverMore of your hidden life;And … Continue reading Space Time Life Review
In Service
In the nation’s serviceIn the service of all nationsIn the service of humanity* In the The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion wrote about the passing of her husband, John Gregory Dunne ’54. Both writers, her sentences are charged with grief and with their shared wordsmithery. I have several scenes etched permanently in my memory: … Continue reading In Service
Culture and Defense
What art is, in reality, is this missing link,not the links which exist.It’s not what you see that is art;art is the gap.- Marcel Duchamp The first time was a small venue. We fumbled over the process of getting on our masks, pulling out IDs, finding vaccination cards on my phone, and the printed tickets … Continue reading Culture and Defense
Alma Mater
Over the past thirty years, the first weekend in June (or thereabouts) comes with it a perennial invitation to go back to school for the weekend. The most brilliant of fundraising techniques, our university offers a free party for four out of five Junes. On the fifth—or the majors—we pay and cover the way for … Continue reading Alma Mater
Si Devi Sognare, Esagera*
After getting up at 5AM for a morning flight out of Rome, I am finally in my Alitalia seat and begin to write over Italian clouds into international skies, through the tiredness into the memory... For the season of turning thirty, I elected to go to New York City for the weekend and have dinner … Continue reading Si Devi Sognare, Esagera*
In the Sun
Growing up in Northern California, winters were long and grey and wet. Thirty degrees was a notable low, “Mommy! It’s freezing!” I would exclaim when we headed south on 101, driving by the digital display of time and temperature, courtesy of Wells Fargo. The novelty of thirty-two degrees equating to freezing fit comfortably for me … Continue reading In the Sun
By the Shining Waters
Back in Brooklyn, in rising heat and humidity, I reflect on our recent time near the edge of Lake Ontario. A benign accident led us all to the greater Rochester area for G to take a dance intensive. Every day we drove forty minutes from the lake to SUNY Brockport, switched drivers, and I returned … Continue reading By the Shining Waters
Where I End & She Begins 