March 13th, 2024 | Family, General, Loss, Memory, Time Passes
No one asked me, but if they did, this is what I would say. “On your 50th birthday, stop collecting stuff. Immediately. Tell friends and family members that from here on in, you only want comestibles or donations made in your honor. No stuff. No tchotchkes. No...
January 6th, 2024 | Architecture and Design, General, Memory, Travel, United States, visual arts
A fine January 5th, cold, a little windy, just what I would expect in Boston. I had an appointment with Adam at The Charles Realty scheduled for eleven o’clock. Otherwise my day was my own. Old South Old South Church is only a couple doors down from the hotel, on the...
January 5th, 2024 | Family, General, Memory, Travel, United States
The omens were mixed for this trip. I almost missed the exit to 895 as I was driving south on I-95. I headed to the bus stop at long-term parking at BWI, nearly forgetting my suitcase. The Southwest flight took off about 20 minutes after it was supposed to have landed...
November 21st, 2023 | Education, Friends, General, Memory, Time Passes
Let us now praise those who keep their ephemera in immaculate order, fully identified and thoughtfully edited. Okay most of us aren’t people of particular cultural or historical import. Our scraps of paper, tchotchkes, photographs and whatnot are unlikely to be the...
November 6th, 2023 | Family, Friends, General, literature and poetry, Loss, Matters of the Spirit, Memory, Writing
I must have read Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White dozens of times; probably for the first time when I was about thirteen. The book and I are the same age, both of us born in 1952. Charlotte’s Web was in a pile of books I had pulled from Dan’s study, mostly children’s...
October 24th, 2023 | Europe, Family, Friends, General, Health, Loss, Memory, Travel
On Sunday, October 15, I ended the day feeling ill, and was grateful for Tali’s Ayurvedic ministrations. They helped. Monday morning saw some improvement but by evening I needed an early bedtime. Tuesday, we attended to a number of tasks, and right away I realized...