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More so than myself, my wife Veronica and her brother Vincent are attached to cherished holiday rituals. Since my in-laws have both passed away, we carry on these rituals in our home. These rituals provide much joy and not a little sadness. “I lived with Mom,” Vincent remarked out of nowhere. “She died. Now I [...]
Archive for the ‘Personal moment’ Category
November 25th, 2010
Category: Personal moment, Woolgathering
Are your lights on; gas to cook all that food? Traffic lights? When you start washing pots and pans, will there be water? If your flambé dessert sets the curtains on fire, think the fire department will be working? Was your supermarket open this morning for all the stuff you forgot to buy yesterday? Taking [...]
September 3rd, 2010
The news service of the United Nations Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has a report out on psychological trauma among Iraqis. What Iraqis have gone through over the past 40 years rivals the suffering of any other people in the world, but overall, things actually look less bleak in terms of Iraq’s mental health [...]
July 26th, 2010
Category: Personal moment
Witnessing a harrowing accident, I realized that I haven’t trained in emergency first aid since Boy Scouts and my car has only a primitive medical kit. I’m going to correct these oversights. Maybe you should, too.
July 6th, 2010
Category: Energy and Environment, Personal moment
We have an extra refrigerator in the basement, useful for its freezer and holding extra stuff for parties, leftovers after parties, and the like. It was more useful when we had a family of four, and my wife has wondered if we wouldn’t save some electricity if we got rid of it. I pooh-poohed this [...]
May 29th, 2010
Category: Personal moment
Life being what it is, we overlook or take for granted so much that is special in our friends and colleagues. When a friend dies, one small consolation is the opportunity to celebrate what made him special to us. We try, in our own halting ways, to make some of the best of him live on through us. That’s the best way to honor a friend, and to be enriched by his example.
April 20th, 2010
…no, that’s not the right play; it’s Huis Clos, maybe. I’m in London in a hotel with about ten Americans originally gathered for a conference that ended Friday. We don’t know when we can leave, it’s a nice enough group but the only link is that we all have some connection with biofuels policy, and [...]
August 29th, 2009
Category: Personal moment
It takes a touch of divine grace to upstage the President of the United States from the podium at your father�s funeral. Ted Kennedy, Jr. accomplished that rare feat with his beautiful eulogy this morning. Our hearts go out to Ted Kennedy�s family today, and to the mother of his children, too.
