ANGELS AMONG US In March, I wrote about Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, “Never Let Me Go” (3/14/2011).  It is the story of cloned children raised for the sole purpose of providing organs to others until the youngsters become “complete,” meaning they die. One of the passiona

A LITTLE BIT OF PREJUDICE REVEALED A friend, a former student from my teaching days in Zimbabwe, e-mailed a picture of one of her classmates the other day. It was a boy, now a middle aged man, with whom I had lost touch but liked very much. He had grown up to be farmer but was driven

THE LIGHT OF A THOUSAND CANDLES Earlier in the week, I stopped by a local gym to walk the treadmill for an hour instead of taking my usual turn through the park. The facility has several televisions hanging on the wall to help pass the time and so I pulled on my earphones to watch one

FLYING WITH WAX WINGS I was reminded of the story of Icarus last week as I sat reading the March edition of “Vogue” with its profile of the President and First Lady of Syria. Everyone is familiar with the story. It’s one of the first I heard as a child and the ancient Gr

THE PRISONER Each morning I turn on my computer to see what’s happened in the world while I’ve slept. Sometimes what I read is so horrifying or so preposterous, I’m uncertain whether or not I am awake or locked in a nightmare. I am shocked to read that someone has burned the Qur

SALAD DAYS ARE NOT ALWAYS GREEN Though we are half way into April, in my part of the world the weather can turn from chilly to warm and back again as fast as a sneeze. Much of the month has been rainy though a few warmer days have brought people flooding into the park where I walk. La

THOUGHTS ON THE RIOT OF SPRING — (and one for Lucy) Yesterday on the way to the park I was struck by a heartening sight. A small tree that had been stumped and left to look like a three foot pole several months prior had sprouted. From top to bottom its sturdy red-brown branches

LADY OF THE LAKE The question of how to deal with tyrants is a thorny one. Four responses are common. One reacts by taking up arms against the oppressors; anotfher offers no resistance and tries to exist as best one can; one becomes part of a passive resistance movement in the manner

NURTURING OR WITHERING?  I wrote in an earlier blog post(blog: 3/30/2011) that the course of artistic history might have taken a different turn if women had put their art before maintaining their households.  Recently, I read the story of one woman who took self sacrifice to an absu

SOMETIMES LUCK HAPPENS Taylor Stevens has a first novel out this month, “The Informationist” which is expected to be a block buster (“Vogue” Magazine, 3/2011). It’s a suspense novel about a woman who is able to extract vital information from everyone she meet