A mediocre tourist
Step one on the Anglo-Saxon Tour – Zurich. Okay, that technically isn’t ON the tour, but since my Beloved has business here, we’re stopping off for a few days. We landed about 9:00 a.m. yesterday and, because our room wasn’t ready yet, we took a walk through the nearby lakeside arboretum. The mature beech trees…
Read MoreOff to find the Anglo-Saxons
I’m going on a trip. This means that later today I will stand in the middle of my bedroom, and have a small, but intense, hissy-fit. I will be surrounded by raincoats, pants, sweaters, jackets, scarves, shoes – LOTS of shoes – jeans, dress pants, pajamas, t-shirts, sweatshirts, socks, and underpants. I will have open…
Read MoreWriting & Reading about The Big Questions
I’ve been reading a lot of obituaries and tributes to David Foster Wallace since I wrote last, and I’m struck by how deeply touched people are by his work, and in some cases how puzzled they are by their deep reaction to his death. What is it about this man that moved us so? For…
Read MoreInfinite Tragedy
David Foster Wallace — photo by Marion Ettinger I learned this morning that author David Foster Wallace hanged himself on Saturday. He was 46, and his wife found him. I didn’t know David personally, and I can’t say I thought everything he wrote was successful, but even his failures were magnificent, brave and worthy. I…
Read MoreSix minutes of miracles
Because really, every once in a while, isn’t it amazing to remember the insane wonder of this world?
Read MoreA request from your friendly author
Hello all, Well, we’ve been getting along very nicely here, I think. Some of you have been kind enough to comment directly on the blog, which is most appreciated, others have sent wonderful emails to me, which is also much appreciated. Now, I have a favor to ask those of you who are on Facebook.…
Read MoreThe Thunderstorm and the Lion
“We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, vast and titanic features, the sea-coast with its wrecks, the wilderness with its living and its decaying trees, the thunder-cloud, and the rain. . .” Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862) US “essayist, poet, naturalist” A line of…
Read MoreThe Year of the Dark Wood
Today is my birthday, and don’t birthdays have a way of making one reflect and take stock? They do me. But I never quite know where that reflection will take me, so let’s see, shall we? My Best Beloved, Ron, gave me a beautiful card this morning with a painting by Emily Carr on in.…
Read MorePro-Life vs Pro-Birth
Okay, I promised myself I wouldn’t write about politics. (Isn’t writing about faith occasionally dangerous enough?) However, I’m fuming. Really fuming. So here goes. I don’t care that John McCain’s choice for running (soul) mate hunts moose. Some of my best friends hunt moose (First Nations people think about these things differently.) I don’t care…
Read MoreHorizons and Emily Carr
For some year now, Ron and I have been talking about the possibility of getting a little cottage someplace not too far from our home, where we could nip off to from time to time and get away from things. So far, we haven’t found the right place. Which leads to question, of course, what…
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