Traipse

A handful of lyrical lines can whisper to the traveler  – how vast is the sea of creative beauty – how deep the wistfulness of soul  – how strong the yearning in our sojourn – how paltry our grasp of the great yonder – how precious to find company midst ‘silent peaks’            _____________________________ Written On … More Du Fu: Pebble On the Tongue

As nations flail now for want of sage, moral leaders even while stalked by ruin, it would be fair to ask where we might turn our eyes.  What moorings might serve as safe harbor for the fashioning of a hereafter?  What landmarks can reliably guide us though peril?  While the coordinates of that location may … More Contagion: A Leader Named Patience

Trapped in the talons of trouble, our impulse may be to search the horizon in hope of deliverance, a stroke of fate that would banish threat and summon back the bluebirds.  Such a pity!  Since the strength to prise open the grip of suffering might well lie unrecognized just over the back fence. It was … More Contagion: Backyard Answers, Humble Remedies

I sat listening in the courtyard of an elderly friend in the ramshackle outskirts of a Kalahari town.  He was giving his account of the origins of the HIV pandemic.  It went something like this: HIV has come to our country by design of ill-willed foreigners*.  We know that diseases native to this part of … More Contagion: Foreign Origins, Distant Remedies

A saintly friend who ‘squandered’ much of her life caring for the disabled in the Kalahari once described to me what the HIV/AIDS pandemic had done to her settlement. ‘We are punch-drunk with sorrow and loss,’ she said, ‘as though pummeled by a heavy-weight fighter round after punishing round.’  This nun had no interest in … More Contagion: Resilience of the Backcountry Elders

As contagion stalks our planet, cities shuttered behind cordons militaires, cruise ships denied port or anchored in a sea of troubles, and hospitals ominous with taut, costumed creatures, a back story has been mass flight in search of safety.  An early report estimated that nearly half of Wuhan’s 11-million population fled as the handwriting went … More Contagion: What Pandemic Hath Wrought

          Pebble On The Tongue* “The longest journey is the journey inwards …         quest for the source of (one’s) being.”             Dag Hammarskjold, fr. Markings Almost 59 years ago, Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary General of the United Nations, his plane on fire, plummeted … More Hammarskjold: The Longest Journey of All

I met John in a garret office just off Maryland Ave. in the Capitol Hill district of Washington, DC.  His tired, disheveled attire might have suggested life on the street, but spritely expression and chatter hinted at something beyond that.  We whiled away the time, and this is the story he told. Like many in … More Hacker Comeback: Survivor From the Streets

The treeless hills of South Africa’s Eastern Cape roll down to the Indian Ocean where they form the Wild Coast: the sea, the wind and spray pounding a rocky shore.  Here and there lie pocket beaches where rivers tumble down to meet the surf. That beauty has attracted seaside resorts and casinos for the well-heeled, … More Mandela* Moment of Truth: Rite of Passage to Calling and Glory