tradition | tradition
May.11.2013
Note: I wrote the essay below a decade ago and it was collected in "East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres." On the occasion of Mother's Day, it is reposted here. My mother suffers from dementia and forgetfulness now, and is growing frail, but her ways remain forever devoted to traditions, to...
|
May.08.2013
Delphine was shocked when she first visited Palestine. She discovered a massive wall slicing brutally through towns and farms, keeping people from work, schools, hospitals, and sometimes their families. She found a land in which...
|
|
Mar.30.2013
The princess was young, beautiful, spoke English better than Maggie Smith, carried a smart phone everywhere, and we were her guests. One of the most modern countries in the world, India also remains one of the most traditional. It...
|
Jan.13.2013
In a few hours, we will leave for our third visit to India. The subcontinent is so vast and so complex, we know that we will never finish exploring this ancient, astonishing part of the world. India, of course, leaves...
|
Sep.23.2012
September 23
WILD
When I run wild through the rain my hair streaming behind me, water fleeing my face, I see with my heart the thousand other rains pouring from my past. How I peel from me the soaking luggage covering my naked pain. Nothing drives me to the...
|
Jul.14.2012
The pagoda has been sitting in the same spot since 1905. It’s maintenance, survival through world war two, and remoteness despite being in the middle of a city that is transitioning from being an industrial center to a financial center is a testament to the Chinese people. Their filial...
|
May.29.2012
Tradition.
I like tradition, not in a weird conservative, never change even though something is based in ignorance or hurtful to others, but real tradition.
Happenings, ceremonies or routines that bond friends, a family, a culture, even a country. I think that's important.
Tradition has...
|
Jan.08.2012
I've never been to Seville but I buy a little piece of it at the grocery store. I'm talking oranges. A large mesh bag of them. On the side of the packaging is a recipe, in small print, for orange marmalade. I then go to the baking aisle and buy sugar for jam making and load up on two bags. I should...
|
May.16.2011
The year was 1963. Ray, Alice, and their three month old baby, (Raymond Jr.) left Connecticut to spend Thanksgiving weekend in Vermont at Ray's Aunt Mary's house. Ray's grandmother was there and came to him telling him that this was the day he would never forget. She didn't know why, only...
|
Apr.28.2011
Two days after Kate Middleton and Prince William walk down the aisle, a group of workers will take to the streets to celebrate the working class. If there is any contradiction it will be ignored. Or perhaps, there is no contradiction. The working class pays the least amount of taxes and...
|