For several years now, I’ve wondered what I’d say if someone asked me to speak at the graduation ceremony of a school for MKs. As I contemplated that question last June, I penned this rather unconventional address to an imaginary graduating class. In honor of BFA’s graduation day yesterday, I’m reposting it. Friends, colleagues, students […]
[Extra Normandy photos at the bottom of this post.] April 11, 2010. I wasn’t prepared for the sea of white crosses that spread across the horizon when I turned away from the desolate beauty of Normandy’s Omaha Beach and faced the American Cemetery where 9,387 white crosses and stars of David marked the graves of […]
Guiltitude. The syndrome is very real. It may not be universal, but I think it needs to be addressed. I don’t have the answer or the cure, though I do know I suffer from its symptoms. DEFINITION: Guiltitude [noun] Condition blending guilt and gratitude, attributed to a life dependent on charitable giving, and often characterized […]
Longing. Webster’s defines it as “a strong persistent yearning or desire, especially one that cannot be fulfilled.” As an MK, I would define it as “the warm taste of the past lingering on my tongue, the sweet sounds of yester-place ringing in my ear, the soft homeness of a lost universe whispering in my heart.” […]
… [Written the day after Mari Ellen passed away on Easter Sunday, 2012] I don’t know how to begin. I wish there were a word to describe the shift of a universe at the exit of a kindred soul. I just went diving into my paper-recycle bag, frantic to find the card I received […]
May I introduce you to a friend of mine? Eva is a beautiful young woman who grew up in Kyrgyzstan. When she was 9, her family moved to Germany, then made a major (and permanent) move to the States a year later. Today, Eva is a bright and vivacious 6th grader with a keen mind […]
I was having a lightning-fast lunch on the grass of Wheaton College’s quad last week when a friend reminded me about gratitude. It was a timely knock upside the head, as I’ve allowed the decisions I’m having to make these days to rob me of both serenity and sleep, and the gratitude that has so […]
There’s a French expression that doesn’t quite translate into English: “like a hair on soup.” You’re having coffee in Starbucks and enjoying the alone-time when someone you vaguely know intrudes on your peace and quiet…like a hair on soup. That’s the gist of it. One week ago, while on a short trip to visit […]
(See the end of the post for news on Brian’s disappearance.) I’ve been home-shopping. Not apartment-shopping. Home-shopping. As in “I own this place.” After 19 years throwing money out the window every month by renting an apartment in Germany, I figure now is as good a time as any to convert my lifelong savings (gulp) […]
[Don’t worry–this isn’t a Whitney Houston tribute…] It was 1988. I was house-sitting with my college roommate somewhere in Wheaton. She’d gone off to class, and I was eating cereal with an eye on the television. MTV was fairly new, in those days, and videos still held a fascination to me. This many years later, […]