Rocamadour is a place of legend. It emerges, high upon a cliff, from fog and clouds, and seems to brood over the surrounding valley like a mother hen over her chicks. Historically one of the main four pilgrimage spots in Christendom (alongside Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago de Compostela), this UNESCO site continues to draw spiritual … Read more
On February 22, 2022, the planet Pluto was exactly at the same place in the sky that it was on July 4, 1776 – American Independence Day. Pluto’s orbit around the Sun takes 246 years, and Pluto’s return was talked about as a portent for revolutionary change. But February 22, 2022 turned out to have … Read more
On the surface of it, the phrase “never again” doesn’t make sense. How can something that doesn’t exist (“never”) happen again? But in the context of the appropriate predicate (such as a killing) the logic of the statement becomes clear, taking on an urgency of exasperation, a demand for an entire society to examine its … Read more
I’m one of the many that wears a mask with some degree of annoyance, resenting the imposed strictures that keep me from being able to show the world a smile. So, I’ve been thinking a lot about masks lately, their historic place, their fashion, their aesthetic, what it feels like to be behind one, and … Read more
In Latin, “corona” refers to a garland worn on the head as a mark of honor or emblem of majesty; it can also refer to a halo around a celestial body.[1] I prefer “coronavirus” to the clinical “COVID-19” because using the word, “corona,” conjures up an image of an encircling light. That encircling light is … Read more
There is a law of diminishing returns that states that a benefit will require an ever increasing input of energy to maintain a fixed result. In the United States, in early 2017, we witnessed a casual amount of bullshitting by our nominally-elected president. The outrage and shock by the citizenry was high. But today, after … Read more
How often do we initiate conversations of complaint about how things have changed in our place of residence or place of former residence? Ah, but it’s human nature, we might say, to compare and contrast. Inevitably the conversation includes at least one of the following: I barely recognize the place; it no longer feels like … Read more