Sometimes life in France under an outrageous government is so strange. Can't think of what other adjective could describe the bizarre acts of the so-called leaders here: people being deported because of their race, immigrants stripped of French nationality for certain crimes, government ministers in cahoots with the rich and powerful, government controlling more and [...]
We came out after sitting this evening into a balmy Paris night, like Indian summer, someone said. The sidewalks were crowded and the café terraces, too, and the canal glistened. I had just talked about saying what couldn't be said. And then we came out and everything was saying it, immensely.
A long, late summer afternoon is cause for easy pleasure with whatever arises today, whether it be errands, correspondence, a lengthy phone conversation, a backache. Wind runs through the fading foliage unevenly and the sun makes its slow descent. Like us all. Among the prime concerns in the French media for this "rentrée" is a [...]
Had a tooth pulled today. Planned for a month and a half, it was one of those back-to-the-wall situations: Any other option would have only led to more trouble. The tooth had to go. And so it did. The dentist did his job like a pro, I did mine like an amateur, with a mix [...]
Things are quiet, the evening cool. It's a "new" month. Time to delve back in to this flow of words, set forth day by day. Again. I've been so many places these weeks, on two continents, under rain and shine, in the pounding heart of cities and the soft rustle of dark woods, life and [...]
Here, checking in again after several weeks of travels abroad, "vacating" away from usual connections, ideas, functions, positions. Here, preparing another departure, another week of "retreating," the last of the summer. One day and another day and another day and another, things as they are keep gushing forth. The breakfast table is filled with marvels, [...]
A "new" month finds me home between travels after days of sitting in the heart of a searing hot Portuguese summer. Writing that, I marvel at the great fortune that has brought me to practice in Portugal these last six years. The days at Quinta das Águias went from fresh, easy morning to unthinkably fiery [...]