To step onto land unfamiliar is to invoke a kind of magic. It’s a magic of expansion—of the mind, of the spirit, of the air in my lungs too long compressed by stillness. It’s a magic of discovery, of anticipation. It’s a magic of hope. As I step onto that land, I pause, feeling for […]
travel
Breaking Through the Gloom
Back in September, when we thought we were living through the worst of the pandemic (I’ll pause here while you get that hysterical laughter under control), I’d had it with humanity. Sure, there are a lot of individual humans that I like—love, really—but by September, humanity as a whole had reached a whole new level […]
Finding Familiar Stories in Sicilian Ruins
An ocean scene mosaic at the Villa Romana del Casale near Piazza Armerina in Sicily Standing in the remains of a palace built nearly two thousand years ago, I stared at mosaics on the floor depicting stories I knew. And those stories aren’t just two thousand years old. In fact, those stories were already a […]
Postcards from New York City
The cabbie, with one hand pressed firmly on the horn and the other making exasperated gestures, crammed his way between a city bus and a gray Rolls Royce while keeping up a running Senegalese-accented and highly colorful dialogue with a colleague on the phone. Dirty snow from last week’s storm fought with piles of black […]
There Are Libraries
There are libraries. And then, there are libraries. A couple of weeks ago, I found myself at a business meeting in Boston. (Okay, I didn’t just wake up and find myself there. That sounds like the start of a thriller movie starring Scarlett Johannson. I actually booked the flight and flew there on purpose. Better? […]
Metaphysical Marketing, or “Wait, What?”
By Kelley Lindberg My friend and author Sydney Salter recently returned from a trip to Japan, and she brought me a Japanese treat to try – a banana-filled pastry (think Twinkie shaped like a small banana, made with rice flour and real banana filling). Produced by a company called Tokyo Banana, the pastry was incredibly […]
