In the summer of 2020, I was diagnosed with cancer of the tongue and lymph nodes. In October I had surgery, removing more than half of my tongue and taking nerves from my arm to reconstruct a new tongue. From November 2020 through January 2021, I endured 33 targeted...
Visiting three islands of Hawaii (Oahu, The Big Island, and Maui) leaves one with a mixed sense of how the sacred rhythms are honored in this historic place. On Oahu, my visit to Pearl Harbor was tranquil and sobering. Realizing that 1,177 sailors and marines lay...
Visiting Iceland leaves one with a feeling of awe at the incredible resilience of theIcelanders. The country is populated with volcanoes in every region of the country, manyof which have exploded in the last few decades. (In 2010, the Eyjafjallajokull volcanoerupted,...
On a trip to Costa Rica, I re-discovered some of the joys of my life. As a diplomat I hadoften traveled. It was part of the job. I really enjoyed being in a culture that was not muchlike the American culture, and I found particular satisfaction in functioning in...
After watching Donald Trump in the White House for a mere 20 days one is left with theexhaustion that usually accompanies any adult who must “watch” over a child, unmooredto reality, wedded to his own narcissistic ego where only his wants matter. One wants toavoid...
My sister died in 2014. That doesn’t sound so long ago in the context of just beginning2016. And yet, grieving her absence, remembering how tied we were to each other,recalling so many smiles and fun times even as we were dealing with so manyhospitalizations—it seems...
Sri Lanka is an ancient civilization, dating back 30,000 years. The island off the coast ofIndia in the Indian Ocean is a mix of many cultures, Sinhalese and Tamil the predominantones. After a recent trip there, it seems amazing the transformation I witnessed. I...
After a series of deaths among my group of friends over the last few months, recently we escaped to the mountains of northern Georgia for a few days to refresh ourselves, and to remind that the earth has a way of renewing—it’s called Spring—that allows us to bury the...
Speaker of the House John Boehner has invited the Israeli Prime Minister to address Congress. He’s entitled to invite anyone to speak, but when he does not coordinate these invitations with the executive branch of the U.S. government, the world grows infinitely more...
Speaker of the House John Boehner has invited the Israeli Prime Minister to address Congress. He’s entitled to invite anyone to speak, but when he does not coordinate these invitations with the executive branch of the U.S. government, the world grows infinitely more...