| A Feel in the Air - 27 September 2021 |
| In recent weeks when I have walked out the door in the morning I have often been struck by the feel in the air. The temperature, the humidity, and the smells, all taken together make a powerful impression. Some days it’s just a general feeling, but other times it evokes a particular place, like England or Southern California. Usually I only notice the feeling for a few seconds, and then it’s gone. This is an instance of a pervasive phenomenon in human existence which is c . . .(more) |
| Back Among the Catalans - 26 August 2021 |
| Between one thing (remodeling my kitchen) and another (Covid) I hadn't been able to make my usual annual visits, and I was missing this place and its people. So here I am in Barcelona again, getting towards the end of my first visit in three years. Though I've been speaking a lot of Catalan, this trip was much more about visiting with people here. In particular, I spent three days with my friends Josep and Maria Teresa at their country place. The house is in a district called . . .(more) |
| Family Weekend - 10 August 2021 |
| Last weekend was our annual family gathering for a weekend in the country. I have nothing profound to say about this, but surely the greatest blessing of my life is that I have a family who enjoy spending time together. We swam, hiked, ran, played volleyball, puzzled, sang, and ate. The weather was beautiful, and my heart is full. |
| Good Morning - 5 July 2021 |
| When I left the house this morning a butterfly flew around me and came to rest on a bush in my front garden. And then when I got to one of my favorite coffee haunts I found that it was open for indoor seating for the first time in a year and a half. So I spent the morning sitting there studying Sinhala. |
| Deer Park - 24 June 2021 |
| We're visiting Joe and Jenny in Seattle, and earlier this week Joe took Avi and me camping for a day in Olympic National Park. Joe had picked out a campground called Deer Park, which is at more than 5,000 feet, almost at the treeline. The views of the mountains were astonishing, and as we were having dinner a deer wandered through the campsite. The next day we did some hiking in the beautiful forest in the area, and then on the way back to Seattle we stopped for lunch at a par . . .(more) |
| Boulder Trails - 20 June 2021 |
| Avi and I just spent several days in Boulder, Colorado, which is a delightful town. The city is right at the base of the mountains, and we hiked a couple of trails. The first one was very near the city, and is called "Lions's Lair". The second one started near the town of Nederland, and led from the Hessie trailhead up to Lost Lake. The trails were both spectacular, and we felt very proud of ourselves for making it all the way to the lake. |
| Serendipity - 19 May 2021 |
| I should make it clear that little of what follows is at all original. A whole intellectual industry has grown up around the word Serendipity, and I encourage you to dip into it. This was originally given as a dvar Torah at Mah Tovu. There is an old joke about a writing class to which the teacher has assigned an essay on “The Elephant.” There are students of various nationalities in the class, and their essays betray their origins. There is a Frenchman, and he has written . . .(more) |
| In the Cupboard - 7 May 2021 |
| Avi is having some serious work done on her house, including removing the old flooring and replacing it with hardwood. The construction uproar was making her three cats crazy, so she asked me if they could stay at my house for a few weeks. On arrival, they started to explore the place, and the most adventurous one climbed into the spice cupboard, just to see what was up with that. Seeing him there reminded me of a picture of me in a cabinet with a cat at our house at 113 Joanne . . .(more) |
| Exodus from Chicago - 6 April 2021 |
| On the heels of my vaccination (I know you're wondering which one I got, and it was Moderna) I shut up my house of leaven and flew East to spend Passover with my daughters. First I went to Washington and had the seders and the first days of the holiday with Deena and her family and Renana. The seders were great, and I got to meet Renana's partner Brooke. Then I took the train up to Philadelphia and spent the last five days with Tamar and her family. We had lots . . .(more) |
| A Poetic Exchange - 16 March 2021 |
| In 1993 The Newberry Library hosted an exhibition of manuscript letters of Thomas Jefferson. The following passage from a letter he wrote when he was seventy-six years old caught my eye:
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| An Excursion to the Conservatory - 28 February 2021 |
| The Garfield Park Conservatory is an enormous set of greenhouses, which is one of the treasures of the city of Chicago. We normally visit once or twice a year, and they have concert series which we've attended a couple of times. Because of Covid, they've been closed since early last year, but they just re-opened last week. The first few days were for members and neighbors only, so I made a reservation for last Thursday and Avi and I went. They only let in one group every half- . . .(more) |
| Retrospective - 24 January 2021 |
| It’s now about a year since our world started to come apart. There’s no point in describing the problems of isolation that I, like everyone else, have suffered in the last year, or to make lists of things we haven’t been able to do because of COVID. That would be sad, and even worse, it would be boring. But some good things did happen last year, partly despite the situation, and partly because of the situation. First of all, it’s important to say that for an introvert . . .(more) |
| Bowsermania - 22 December 2020 |
| A couple of weeks ago I came across a word in Sinhala that intrigued me. The book I’m reading now is a novel set in a remote village, where the government has just built a new office. The office has a toilet, but since there’s no running water in the village, there’s a water tank, and it is going to be filled by a “bowsaraya.” That didn’t sound to me like a Sinhala word, and when I looked it up on the dictionary app on my phone, it translated it as “bowser.” So, though I had . . .(more) |
| Charon - 5 December 2020 |
| I mentioned earlier that I was reading books by Jesus Moncada. He’s a Catalan author who wrote fiction set in the little place where he grew up. His stuff is mostly humorous, and the gentle poking fun at small-town characters reminds me of Garrison Keillor. I just read a particularly good story by Moncada called “A Letter to Mrs. Death from Miquel Garrigues.” The letter is dictated to a friend by a man who spent the first part of his life as a ferryman, a job that was her . . .(more) |
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