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To walk or tramp about; to gad, wander. < Old French - trapasser (to trespass).

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Quiet Pride: Power of a Cherokee Medicine Pouch

Mar 11, 2023
She calls herself Trish, though, on reflection, that may well have been a gesture toward drowsy travelers in the Florida motel where she tidies up the breakfast counter and replenishes coffee urns.  She moves among the tables deftly clearing away clutter and resetting furniture.  As the room falls silent, she asks us, the last of […]

Quiet Pride: Power of a Cherokee Medicine Pouch

March 11, 2023

She calls herself Trish, though, on reflection, that may well have been a gesture toward drowsy travelers in the Florida motel where she tidies up the breakfast counter and replenishes coffee urns.  She moves among the tables deftly clearing away clutter and resetting furniture.  As the room falls silent, she asks us, the last of […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Highway of Storms: Soul of the Smallest Church

Feb 20, 2023
Along the eastern seaboard of America winds a highway renowned for tumult.  Called the Coastal Highway, US #17 tiptoes north from west central Florida to Virginia, following the track of some of the worst hurricanes ever to rake these parts.  On its way, it ranges past the barrier islands of the Georgia coast, setting of […]

Highway of Storms: Soul of the Smallest Church

February 20, 2023

Along the eastern seaboard of America winds a highway renowned for tumult.  Called the Coastal Highway, US #17 tiptoes north from west central Florida to Virginia, following the track of some of the worst hurricanes ever to rake these parts.  On its way, it ranges past the barrier islands of the Georgia coast, setting of […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Night Manager: Burger Joint at the Corner of Club and Guess

Jan 11, 2023
A brake job you can no longer ignore might well take you to a part of town that is otherwise drive-through country.  Just so, the New Year has led me at the crack of dawn to a garage beside a once trendy mall, now wintered by the caprice of fashion and market.  I dropped off […]

Night Manager: Burger Joint at the Corner of Club and Guess

January 11, 2023

A brake job you can no longer ignore might well take you to a part of town that is otherwise drive-through country.  Just so, the New Year has led me at the crack of dawn to a garage beside a once trendy mall, now wintered by the caprice of fashion and market.  I dropped off […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Yuletide Story: Soup Ladle as Weapon

Dec 20, 2022
Among the Iroquois tribes of eastern North America a story is told about a time of internal enmity – and of stumbling into peace through the innocence of a little child.  During this outbreak of bloodshed, one of the tribes laid plans to wreak vengeance on their rivals.  To that end they sent out spies […]

Yuletide Story: Soup Ladle as Weapon

December 20, 2022

Among the Iroquois tribes of eastern North America a story is told about a time of internal enmity – and of stumbling into peace through the innocence of a little child.  During this outbreak of bloodshed, one of the tribes laid plans to wreak vengeance on their rivals.  To that end they sent out spies […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Of First Things:  Winter of Vigil, Spice and Song

Dec 8, 2022
Sift the clutter of this festival season in the northern hemisphere, and a few things do answer the test of longevity.  They are elements recognized – claimed and treasured – by many of our global neighbors.  At some primal level it turns out, we do yet share ancient impulses, perhaps unawares, with kin distant to […]

Of First Things:  Winter of Vigil, Spice and Song

December 08, 2022

Sift the clutter of this festival season in the northern hemisphere, and a few things do answer the test of longevity.  They are elements recognized – claimed and treasured – by many of our global neighbors.  At some primal level it turns out, we do yet share ancient impulses, perhaps unawares, with kin distant to […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Cemetery Poetry 4 – Flaming Maples in an Ozark Mountain Town

Nov 1, 2022
Few rambles can rival for fall splendor the hills and deep valleys of the Ozark mountains that impose a breathless silence as the roads wind through one scene of hardwood glory after another.  Humble villages and towns care little for the renown and bustle of distant cities as they bask in a spectacle that lays […]

Cemetery Poetry 4 – Flaming Maples in an Ozark Mountain Town

November 01, 2022

Few rambles can rival for fall splendor the hills and deep valleys of the Ozark mountains that impose a breathless silence as the roads wind through one scene of hardwood glory after another.  Humble villages and towns care little for the renown and bustle of distant cities as they bask in a spectacle that lays […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Cemetery Poetry – 3: Laying To Rest A Shade And Its Transport

Oct 14, 2022
The care of burial grounds is not everyone’s cup of cardamom tea.  There are, after all, those stories about resident wraiths in midnight gloom.  About skullduggery, bad juju and unrelieved, tortured lives.  About white-knuckle secrets taken in silence to the bitter end.  This is ground awash with tears, sewn with regrets enough to make even […]

Cemetery Poetry – 3: Laying To Rest A Shade And Its Transport

October 14, 2022

The care of burial grounds is not everyone’s cup of cardamom tea.  There are, after all, those stories about resident wraiths in midnight gloom.  About skullduggery, bad juju and unrelieved, tortured lives.  About white-knuckle secrets taken in silence to the bitter end.  This is ground awash with tears, sewn with regrets enough to make even […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Cemetery Poetry (2):  Hunger for a ‘Vaya con Dios’

Sep 11, 2022
We were standing in the street loading last bundles for a road trip when our good neighbor, Patrick, ambled over to bid us a ‘Vaya con dios’.  But before bestowing his godspeed he offered an aside.  It is these casual asides that turn out to be treasures of insight. He had been to a memorial […]

Cemetery Poetry (2):  Hunger for a ‘Vaya con Dios’

September 11, 2022

We were standing in the street loading last bundles for a road trip when our good neighbor, Patrick, ambled over to bid us a ‘Vaya con dios’.  But before bestowing his godspeed he offered an aside.  It is these casual asides that turn out to be treasures of insight. He had been to a memorial […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Cemetery Poetry: The Place Where They Sleep

Aug 27, 2022
You can’t traipse very long on this mortal coil before encountering end-of-life truths.  A friend in Atlanta, in the Delta Airlines master operations room on 9-11, tells with restrained panache her version of such an encounter.  Driving blithely about town one day, she came to a familiar intersection marked by a traffic light (robot).  Since […]

Cemetery Poetry: The Place Where They Sleep

August 27, 2022

You can’t traipse very long on this mortal coil before encountering end-of-life truths.  A friend in Atlanta, in the Delta Airlines master operations room on 9-11, tells with restrained panache her version of such an encounter.  Driving blithely about town one day, she came to a familiar intersection marked by a traffic light (robot).  Since […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

That Other Dream: The Power of An Infant in Arms

Jun 24, 2022
A well-known healer in West Africa was visited one day by a tortured soul haunted by a dream of turmoil in the spirit world.  Having heard a full account of these experiences, the healer responded: This is the wrong dream.  Now you must return home and dream a dream of goodness and harmony.  Happily, this […]

That Other Dream: The Power of An Infant in Arms

June 24, 2022

A well-known healer in West Africa was visited one day by a tortured soul haunted by a dream of turmoil in the spirit world.  Having heard a full account of these experiences, the healer responded: This is the wrong dream.  Now you must return home and dream a dream of goodness and harmony.  Happily, this […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

The ‘Guest Room’: Of Cowsheds and Nightjars

May 18, 2022
Anyone with history of traipsing on a budget will have ample impressions of the phenomenon known as the ‘guest room’: sometimes kitted out in Victorian luxury, sometimes spare as a jail cell.  But always a relief.  The backstory is an ancient admonition that households do well to welcome strangers since heavenly visitors arrive in just […]

The ‘Guest Room’: Of Cowsheds and Nightjars

May 18, 2022

Anyone with history of traipsing on a budget will have ample impressions of the phenomenon known as the ‘guest room’: sometimes kitted out in Victorian luxury, sometimes spare as a jail cell.  But always a relief.  The backstory is an ancient admonition that households do well to welcome strangers since heavenly visitors arrive in just […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Howrah Rail Station: Singular Scene of Human Drama

Mar 30, 2022
Sitting on the banks of a sacred river beside a massive Asian city, preens in splendor a rail station without peer in the world. At the Howrah rail complex, largest in India, 600 trains pass through daily transporting one million passengers. In many countries, this single rail station would be denoted as a city unto itself. But […]

Howrah Rail Station: Singular Scene of Human Drama

March 30, 2022

Sitting on the banks of a sacred river beside a massive Asian city, preens in splendor a rail station without peer in the world. At the Howrah rail complex, largest in India, 600 trains pass through daily transporting one million passengers. In many countries, this single rail station would be denoted as a city unto itself. But […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

‘Special Military Operations’: A Question In the Aftermath

Mar 11, 2022
During the last gasps of apartheid South Africa the surrounding countries that had taken in refugees and exiles from the townships suffered from car bombs and commando raids by special forces who suspected that ‘runaways were likely up to no good’.  Quiet towns would shake with random explosions.  Or letter bombs would send bloodied and […]

‘Special Military Operations’: A Question In the Aftermath

March 11, 2022

During the last gasps of apartheid South Africa the surrounding countries that had taken in refugees and exiles from the townships suffered from car bombs and commando raids by special forces who suspected that ‘runaways were likely up to no good’.  Quiet towns would shake with random explosions.  Or letter bombs would send bloodied and […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Strasbourg: The Stork’s Tenderness – and Its Failure

Mar 4, 2022
Take a north-south European land journey and chances are good that your route will follow for a time the Rhine Valley whether by rail, road or river cruise.  (Though, of late, the river option has suffered from low water levels that play havoc with the passage of vessels.)  The cathedral spires and castles, the cities, […]

Strasbourg: The Stork’s Tenderness – and Its Failure

March 04, 2022

Take a north-south European land journey and chances are good that your route will follow for a time the Rhine Valley whether by rail, road or river cruise.  (Though, of late, the river option has suffered from low water levels that play havoc with the passage of vessels.)  The cathedral spires and castles, the cities, […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Trans-Siberian: Rivers, Steppes – the Endless Steppes – And Sometimes Sorrow

Feb 16, 2022
If there is a soundtrack to traveling the Trans-Siberian railroad it must surely include Ravel’s ‘Bolero’.  Its relentless minor key motif captures something of an exhausting traverse; the hypnotic percussion striving against featureless steppes and forests, and just so, the sturdy settlements buttressed against weather and loneliness. Our family, intrigued as we are by epic […]

Trans-Siberian: Rivers, Steppes – the Endless Steppes – And Sometimes Sorrow

February 16, 2022

If there is a soundtrack to traveling the Trans-Siberian railroad it must surely include Ravel’s ‘Bolero’.  Its relentless minor key motif captures something of an exhausting traverse; the hypnotic percussion striving against featureless steppes and forests, and just so, the sturdy settlements buttressed against weather and loneliness. Our family, intrigued as we are by epic […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Figure for the New Year*

Jan 23, 2022
I remember riding through the steam-vintage railyards of India and seeing the hopelessly sooty signs on lamp posts and station walls: Cleanliness is next to godliness.  The kind of thing Gandhi might have said at his ashram though others say John Wesley got there first. It’s a sentiment shared around the world.  Stop for a […]

Figure for the New Year*

January 23, 2022

I remember riding through the steam-vintage railyards of India and seeing the hopelessly sooty signs on lamp posts and station walls: Cleanliness is next to godliness.  The kind of thing Gandhi might have said at his ashram though others say John Wesley got there first. It’s a sentiment shared around the world.  Stop for a […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Salt of the Angolan Earth: Strange Grave, Brilliant Witness

Dec 25, 2021
During Africa’s struggle to be free, and as Angola’s Portuguese colonial system crumbled, a scramble brought rival forces into the field fighting for advantage in the independence that was sure to follow.  I ventured into that maelstrom from neighboring Congo to assess what relief supplies might be useful to the victims of that strife in […]

Salt of the Angolan Earth: Strange Grave, Brilliant Witness

December 25, 2021

During Africa’s struggle to be free, and as Angola’s Portuguese colonial system crumbled, a scramble brought rival forces into the field fighting for advantage in the independence that was sure to follow.  I ventured into that maelstrom from neighboring Congo to assess what relief supplies might be useful to the victims of that strife in […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

The Pillars of Hercules: Tangiers’ Brocade of Beauty and Struggle 

Nov 9, 2021
Hercules, the ancients say, in his wandering and labors came to the western limit of the Mediterranean where a great mountain, the Atlas, lay athwart his path.  Not one for nuance, some say in the fury of madness, he smashed a passage through the ranges, and so appeared the straits of Gibraltar, the headlands left […]

The Pillars of Hercules: Tangiers’ Brocade of Beauty and Struggle 

November 09, 2021

Hercules, the ancients say, in his wandering and labors came to the western limit of the Mediterranean where a great mountain, the Atlas, lay athwart his path.  Not one for nuance, some say in the fury of madness, he smashed a passage through the ranges, and so appeared the straits of Gibraltar, the headlands left […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Train to Marrakech: Epic Grandeur, Sharp Tutorial

Oct 7, 2021
Is there any corner of Africa quite the equal of the Barbary Coast –  what the modern world knows as Morocco?  Its northern shore, a rocky buttress ‘gainst the turquoise tide of the Mediterranean.  Where Punic and Roman ruins sit astride the bluffs and valleys.  Where the High Atlas shelter the Amazigh, the Berbers, once […]

Train to Marrakech: Epic Grandeur, Sharp Tutorial

October 07, 2021

Is there any corner of Africa quite the equal of the Barbary Coast –  what the modern world knows as Morocco?  Its northern shore, a rocky buttress ‘gainst the turquoise tide of the Mediterranean.  Where Punic and Roman ruins sit astride the bluffs and valleys.  Where the High Atlas shelter the Amazigh, the Berbers, once […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Pebble on the Tongue:  Can Filigree Strings Yet Carry Us Aloft?

Sep 9, 2021
While meandering home from the Canadian Maritimes some time ago, we stopped at the suggestion of family by the College of New Jersey in Trenton to view an art exhibit about the beauty and travail of Afghanistan.  There we stumbled on the video of an extraordinary scene composed by Lida Abdul, who, exile that she […]

Pebble on the Tongue:  Can Filigree Strings Yet Carry Us Aloft?

September 09, 2021

While meandering home from the Canadian Maritimes some time ago, we stopped at the suggestion of family by the College of New Jersey in Trenton to view an art exhibit about the beauty and travail of Afghanistan.  There we stumbled on the video of an extraordinary scene composed by Lida Abdul, who, exile that she […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Pani Ram: Of Dugouts and Ferrymen

Aug 7, 2021
You will know that you have strayed from well-traveled routes when you arrive at a riverbank and there is no bridge.  Since ancient times, and especially in rainy backcountry, this is an epic scene: river landings with dugouts drawn up on the strand.  The figure of boat and ferryman is so central to human experience […]

Pani Ram: Of Dugouts and Ferrymen

August 07, 2021

You will know that you have strayed from well-traveled routes when you arrive at a riverbank and there is no bridge.  Since ancient times, and especially in rainy backcountry, this is an epic scene: river landings with dugouts drawn up on the strand.  The figure of boat and ferryman is so central to human experience […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Pebble on the Tongue: “If You’re Lucky …”

Jul 21, 2021
To say that travels will move you, is a tautology, self-evident on the face.  But Kate Daniels,  lyricist of the gritty, personal truths of the American South has penned a line that captures the traveler’s rarest take-away, the most powerful gift of a ‘traipse’: If you’re lucky ….It will bring you to your knees. Kate […]

Pebble on the Tongue: “If You’re Lucky …”

July 21, 2021

To say that travels will move you, is a tautology, self-evident on the face.  But Kate Daniels,  lyricist of the gritty, personal truths of the American South has penned a line that captures the traveler’s rarest take-away, the most powerful gift of a ‘traipse’: If you’re lucky ….It will bring you to your knees. Kate […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Pyrotechnics: There Are Fireworks, and Then There Are Fireworks

Jul 7, 2021
Say ‘fireworks’ to most any soul on the planet – child or adult – and there will follow a fountain, a vivid geyser, of story.  The pyrotechnics celebrated in lore and poetry are rooted after all in spiritual struggle: their boom and flash created to drive away shades of misery and misfortune.  But they end […]

Pyrotechnics: There Are Fireworks, and Then There Are Fireworks

July 07, 2021

Say ‘fireworks’ to most any soul on the planet – child or adult – and there will follow a fountain, a vivid geyser, of story.  The pyrotechnics celebrated in lore and poetry are rooted after all in spiritual struggle: their boom and flash created to drive away shades of misery and misfortune.  But they end […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Pebble on the Tongue: ‘Luckiest Woman Alive!’

Jun 10, 2021
Some years ago, I was dinner guest in the home of an Ethiopian woman in Winnipeg, Canada.  We sat on haunches in her kitchen as she made coffee in the ceremonial way, roasting beans over open coals.  The strong aroma suffused her life story. Years before, she had married for love a Muslim man back […]

Pebble on the Tongue: ‘Luckiest Woman Alive!’

June 10, 2021

Some years ago, I was dinner guest in the home of an Ethiopian woman in Winnipeg, Canada.  We sat on haunches in her kitchen as she made coffee in the ceremonial way, roasting beans over open coals.  The strong aroma suffused her life story. Years before, she had married for love a Muslim man back […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Pebble on the Tongue: From the Basement of Suffering

May 24, 2021
Given the loss and suffering that marks these days, here is the sense of a moment recounted by Sadako Kurihara, poet of Hiroshima: In Hiroshima, in a basement, mid stench and death, a young woman goes into labor. A woman, herself moaning with pain, steps forward. “I can help with the baby. I am a […]

Pebble on the Tongue: From the Basement of Suffering

May 24, 2021

Given the loss and suffering that marks these days, here is the sense of a moment recounted by Sadako Kurihara, poet of Hiroshima: In Hiroshima, in a basement, mid stench and death, a young woman goes into labor. A woman, herself moaning with pain, steps forward. “I can help with the baby. I am a […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Omnibus: It Doesn’t Quite Mean ‘All’

May 20, 2021
Somewhere between the jet set and the purist pilgrims who shamble along the Camino de Santiago are those who ride the ‘bus’, a shortened form of the more picturesque 19th cent. French term, ‘omnibus’.  It’s that ‘omni’ part that gives pause – omni being Latin for ‘all’.  Which explains a great deal about bus travel […]

Omnibus: It Doesn’t Quite Mean ‘All’

May 20, 2021

Somewhere between the jet set and the purist pilgrims who shamble along the Camino de Santiago are those who ride the ‘bus’, a shortened form of the more picturesque 19th cent. French term, ‘omnibus’.  It’s that ‘omni’ part that gives pause – omni being Latin for ‘all’.  Which explains a great deal about bus travel […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

The Long and Winding Road: Mythic Highway, Honeymoon Beach

May 1, 2021
Paul McCartney, so the story says, retreated alone to a farm in Scotland once where he sat at the piano gazing on the trace of a road meandering wild heather, the moors and lochs beyond – in short, his life – and penned a ballad: ‘The Long and Winding Road’. Were there a list of […]

The Long and Winding Road: Mythic Highway, Honeymoon Beach

May 01, 2021

Paul McCartney, so the story says, retreated alone to a farm in Scotland once where he sat at the piano gazing on the trace of a road meandering wild heather, the moors and lochs beyond – in short, his life – and penned a ballad: ‘The Long and Winding Road’. Were there a list of […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

The Die Is Cast: No Friends But the Afghan Mountains

Apr 22, 2021
Come September 11, 2021, by presidential decree, the last troops of a Western alliance will strike their regimental colors, stow their gear and board massive transports for rear bases in Europe, the Middle East, and North America.  They leave behind razor-wire perimeters, bunkers, the tangled wreckage of warfare, frightened collaborators, and trauma as far as […]

The Die Is Cast: No Friends But the Afghan Mountains

April 22, 2021

Come September 11, 2021, by presidential decree, the last troops of a Western alliance will strike their regimental colors, stow their gear and board massive transports for rear bases in Europe, the Middle East, and North America.  They leave behind razor-wire perimeters, bunkers, the tangled wreckage of warfare, frightened collaborators, and trauma as far as […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Lion’s Den Discovery: Pushback on a Eurocentric World View

Apr 10, 2021
On the southern fringes of the Kalahari across the interior of southern Africa stretch ranches and dryland farming in all directions.  Here and there outcrops and hills break the monotony of the plain often overlooking seasonal streams and rivers.  Near such a ridge, in 1924 the unlikely settlement of Taung (‘lion’s den’) was the epicenter […]

Lion’s Den Discovery: Pushback on a Eurocentric World View

April 10, 2021

On the southern fringes of the Kalahari across the interior of southern Africa stretch ranches and dryland farming in all directions.  Here and there outcrops and hills break the monotony of the plain often overlooking seasonal streams and rivers.  Near such a ridge, in 1924 the unlikely settlement of Taung (‘lion’s den’) was the epicenter […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Pebble on the Tongue: Gift of the Gulag

Mar 31, 2021
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is not known to have written much about his epic, and often painful, travels – to Kazakhstan and his years in the gulag, to Germany when exiled and made stateless by the Soviet authorities, later around the world as a celebrated Nobel laureate, and eventually back to Mother Russia.  But he did write […]

Pebble on the Tongue: Gift of the Gulag

March 31, 2021

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is not known to have written much about his epic, and often painful, travels – to Kazakhstan and his years in the gulag, to Germany when exiled and made stateless by the Soviet authorities, later around the world as a celebrated Nobel laureate, and eventually back to Mother Russia.  But he did write […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

In A Potato Cellar: Beneath the Sign of a Ropey Tornado

Mar 21, 2021
Spring may be the season of daffodils and birdsong, but a shift in the jet stream also lifts a curtain on the annual drama of tornadoes.  We once sat enthralled while listening in disbelief to the nonchalance of friends in a Tulsa, OK suburb who described the ravages of a storm that passed within hailing […]

In A Potato Cellar: Beneath the Sign of a Ropey Tornado

March 21, 2021

Spring may be the season of daffodils and birdsong, but a shift in the jet stream also lifts a curtain on the annual drama of tornadoes.  We once sat enthralled while listening in disbelief to the nonchalance of friends in a Tulsa, OK suburb who described the ravages of a storm that passed within hailing […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Myanmar: The Road Beyond Mandalay

Feb 26, 2021
Not only the road to Mandalay, but city streets the length and breadth of Myanmar stream today with protestors flashing the three-fingered salute, with flotillas of motorcycles and scooters, monks in maroon robes, even the occasional elephant.  Unseen are the armies of government workers, railway staff, nurses and doctors, power plant personnel and bank tellers […]

Myanmar: The Road Beyond Mandalay

February 26, 2021

Not only the road to Mandalay, but city streets the length and breadth of Myanmar stream today with protestors flashing the three-fingered salute, with flotillas of motorcycles and scooters, monks in maroon robes, even the occasional elephant.  Unseen are the armies of government workers, railway staff, nurses and doctors, power plant personnel and bank tellers […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia: Beware the #30 Tram

Jan 30, 2021
Few cities in Europe can match Barcelona for its storehouse of cultural riches.  The tourist industry knows it only too well, sending 30 million visitors coursing its way every year.  Very nearly all of them were surrounding the famous Sagrada Familia basilica the day we arrived by train from Valencia. We’d been foresighted enough to […]

Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia: Beware the #30 Tram

January 30, 2021

Few cities in Europe can match Barcelona for its storehouse of cultural riches.  The tourist industry knows it only too well, sending 30 million visitors coursing its way every year.  Very nearly all of them were surrounding the famous Sagrada Familia basilica the day we arrived by train from Valencia. We’d been foresighted enough to […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Traipse: Consolation

Jan 19, 2021
During the harrowing years of the AIDS pandemic in southern Africa, a saying was frequently heard at memorial gatherings.  It went something like this: a In this sea of sorrow, we must not be strangers.

Traipse: Consolation

January 19, 2021

During the harrowing years of the AIDS pandemic in southern Africa, a saying was frequently heard at memorial gatherings.  It went something like this: a In this sea of sorrow, we must not be strangers.

Written by Jonathan Larson

Kalahari Yuletide: A Cattlepost State of Mind

Dec 23, 2020
No darkness on earth can match the depth of a desert night.  No firmament of stars can rival the spectacle of a desert sky.  For the most part it is only the drifted face of sand and the beasts of the wild who are witness to such silent marvels. Except a small fraternity of herders […]

Kalahari Yuletide: A Cattlepost State of Mind

December 23, 2020

No darkness on earth can match the depth of a desert night.  No firmament of stars can rival the spectacle of a desert sky.  For the most part it is only the drifted face of sand and the beasts of the wild who are witness to such silent marvels. Except a small fraternity of herders […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Minimalist Safety: Story For a Cluttered World

Nov 29, 2020
I traveled with a friend one day to visit a woman healer in a village at the edge of the Kalahari.  She received us eagerly as we chattered about her late father, a prominent bishop whose mantle she had taken up.  She set out some hand-crafted folding chairs slung with strips of cowhide of a […]

Minimalist Safety: Story For a Cluttered World

November 29, 2020

I traveled with a friend one day to visit a woman healer in a village at the edge of the Kalahari.  She received us eagerly as we chattered about her late father, a prominent bishop whose mantle she had taken up.  She set out some hand-crafted folding chairs slung with strips of cowhide of a […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Souvenir: Wormwood and Mint in the High Atlas

Nov 15, 2020
Make your way, as we did once, southeast from Marrakech up the Ourika Valley into the Atlas mountains of Morocco, and you could well find yourself on the second floor of a stone cottage, sipping sheeba, a hot cup of Berber hospitality.  With the roar of snow melt in the background, our host explains that […]

Souvenir: Wormwood and Mint in the High Atlas

November 15, 2020

Make your way, as we did once, southeast from Marrakech up the Ourika Valley into the Atlas mountains of Morocco, and you could well find yourself on the second floor of a stone cottage, sipping sheeba, a hot cup of Berber hospitality.  With the roar of snow melt in the background, our host explains that […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Trekking To the Polls: Proverbial Wisdom on Leadership

Oct 30, 2020
Proverbs, often referred to as ‘deep language’, are a ready mark of traditional societies.  And their absence from everyday discourse marks a shift away from ‘wisdom’ toward a knowledge, or information culture. I once heard a hacker say that creeping into a guarded digital domain is like breaking into a gothic cathedral; finding architecture replete […]

Trekking To the Polls: Proverbial Wisdom on Leadership

October 30, 2020

Proverbs, often referred to as ‘deep language’, are a ready mark of traditional societies.  And their absence from everyday discourse marks a shift away from ‘wisdom’ toward a knowledge, or information culture. I once heard a hacker say that creeping into a guarded digital domain is like breaking into a gothic cathedral; finding architecture replete […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Truth-Telling in the Darkness: Grief Turned To Delirious Joy

Oct 12, 2020
When we set out on travels to remote locations, I’ve made it a habit to carry in my satchel a small shortwave radio even in this age of the internet.  Deep in the Himalaya, in equatorial rain forest, or the desert interiors of Africa, a small hand set with fully extended aerial has permitted access […]

Truth-Telling in the Darkness: Grief Turned To Delirious Joy

October 12, 2020

When we set out on travels to remote locations, I’ve made it a habit to carry in my satchel a small shortwave radio even in this age of the internet.  Deep in the Himalaya, in equatorial rain forest, or the desert interiors of Africa, a small hand set with fully extended aerial has permitted access […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Birmingham (UK) War Vet: Prayer in Burnt-Over Country

Sep 30, 2020
Those who scan the faith scene of the Western world continue to write obituaries for the forlorn churches of Europe, where a handful of stubborn faithful gather on appointed days to full-throated baroque organ and sonorous liturgy.  A wistful poet has named this scene ‘the threadbare brocade of a passing age.’ Some years ago I […]

Birmingham (UK) War Vet: Prayer in Burnt-Over Country

September 30, 2020

Those who scan the faith scene of the Western world continue to write obituaries for the forlorn churches of Europe, where a handful of stubborn faithful gather on appointed days to full-throated baroque organ and sonorous liturgy.  A wistful poet has named this scene ‘the threadbare brocade of a passing age.’ Some years ago I […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Electoral College of One: the Case of Malawi

Sep 10, 2020
A mail-in ballot has arrived at our address here in Durham, North Carolina.  It came with little fanfare: the clack of our mailbox lid as the postman made a noontime delivery.  I am aware that the ether is stormy now with quarreling about the transaction it represents.  And heavy clouds forewarn of what is yet […]

Electoral College of One: the Case of Malawi

September 10, 2020

A mail-in ballot has arrived at our address here in Durham, North Carolina.  It came with little fanfare: the clack of our mailbox lid as the postman made a noontime delivery.  I am aware that the ether is stormy now with quarreling about the transaction it represents.  And heavy clouds forewarn of what is yet […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Isle of Charms, Isle of Despair

Aug 31, 2020
I have a fascination for islands.  It surfaced when this eight-year-old roamed Defoe’s ‘Robinson Crusoe’, castaway on the ‘Isle of Despair’. These penchants rise somehow from the depths of psyche, roused in me by childhood stops where island names ring like rhapsody: Hawaii, Formosa (now Taiwan), Honshu, Cebu, Penang, Java, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).  Then, […]

Isle of Charms, Isle of Despair

August 31, 2020

I have a fascination for islands.  It surfaced when this eight-year-old roamed Defoe’s ‘Robinson Crusoe’, castaway on the ‘Isle of Despair’. These penchants rise somehow from the depths of psyche, roused in me by childhood stops where island names ring like rhapsody: Hawaii, Formosa (now Taiwan), Honshu, Cebu, Penang, Java, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).  Then, […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Beneath Holiday Chandeliers: What Westphalia Offers Magnolia, Mississippi

Aug 18, 2020
Picture a holiday charity fundraiser under chandeliers, the well-heeled rubbing elbows midst chatter about Christmas markets in Bavaria and the beaches of Bali.  My wife and I found ourselves there by some social accident last year, and, drinks in hand, worked our way to a quiet corner table where a 60-ish couple sat alee of […]

Beneath Holiday Chandeliers: What Westphalia Offers Magnolia, Mississippi

August 18, 2020

Picture a holiday charity fundraiser under chandeliers, the well-heeled rubbing elbows midst chatter about Christmas markets in Bavaria and the beaches of Bali.  My wife and I found ourselves there by some social accident last year, and, drinks in hand, worked our way to a quiet corner table where a 60-ish couple sat alee of […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Tiger-Widows of the Sundarbans: Who Is Eating Whom?

Jul 19, 2020
The river steamers of yesterday, with a blast of their whistles, would cast off hawsers from the Hooghly River docks opposite Kolkata, and drift gently with the current past the grime and smoke of an Asian city into a gloaming of the world’s largest river delta, the Sundarbans.  There the waters of the sacred Ganga, […]

Tiger-Widows of the Sundarbans: Who Is Eating Whom?

July 19, 2020

The river steamers of yesterday, with a blast of their whistles, would cast off hawsers from the Hooghly River docks opposite Kolkata, and drift gently with the current past the grime and smoke of an Asian city into a gloaming of the world’s largest river delta, the Sundarbans.  There the waters of the sacred Ganga, […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

A Poacher’s Tears and Gratitude

Jul 3, 2020
Alarming scenes are coming in from game-rich northern Botswana this week, where the carcasses of hundreds of elephants are strewn across the lush plains having perished from some mysterious cause.  This is not the work of poachers – the tusks are all still intact – and there is ample water and foliage available.  Early speculation […]

A Poacher’s Tears and Gratitude

July 03, 2020

Alarming scenes are coming in from game-rich northern Botswana this week, where the carcasses of hundreds of elephants are strewn across the lush plains having perished from some mysterious cause.  This is not the work of poachers – the tusks are all still intact – and there is ample water and foliage available.  Early speculation […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Two Cubs – and a Tiger Queen

Jun 18, 2020
The interface of the wild and the world of human settlement is dicey territory to be sure.  Whether the elephants of the Okavango, the orangutan of Sumatra or the pangolins of Asia, wild creatures everywhere face unfriendly odds.  Jacquie Oberg, now of small town Minnesota, should know.  Some of those creatures ended up in her […]

Two Cubs – and a Tiger Queen

June 18, 2020

The interface of the wild and the world of human settlement is dicey territory to be sure.  Whether the elephants of the Okavango, the orangutan of Sumatra or the pangolins of Asia, wild creatures everywhere face unfriendly odds.  Jacquie Oberg, now of small town Minnesota, should know.  Some of those creatures ended up in her […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Du Fu: Pebble On the Tongue

Jun 12, 2020
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 […]

Du Fu: Pebble On the Tongue

June 12, 2020

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 […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Contagion: A Leader Named Patience

May 30, 2020
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 […]

Contagion: A Leader Named Patience

May 30, 2020

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 […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Contagion: Backyard Answers, Humble Remedies

May 16, 2020
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 […]

Contagion: Backyard Answers, Humble Remedies

May 16, 2020

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 […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Contagion: Foreign Origins, Distant Remedies

Apr 30, 2020
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 […]

Contagion: Foreign Origins, Distant Remedies

April 30, 2020

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 […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Contagion: Resilience of the Backcountry Elders

Apr 18, 2020
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 […]

Contagion: Resilience of the Backcountry Elders

April 18, 2020

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 […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Contagion: What Pandemic Hath Wrought

Mar 31, 2020
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 […]

Contagion: What Pandemic Hath Wrought

March 31, 2020

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 […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Hammarskjold: The Longest Journey of All

Mar 14, 2020
          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 […]

Hammarskjold: The Longest Journey of All

March 14, 2020

          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 […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Hacker Comeback: Survivor From the Streets

Feb 28, 2020
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 […]

Hacker Comeback: Survivor From the Streets

February 28, 2020

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 […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Mandela* Moment of Truth: Rite of Passage to Calling and Glory

Feb 14, 2020
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, […]

Mandela* Moment of Truth: Rite of Passage to Calling and Glory

February 14, 2020

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, […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Mother of All Roadtrips XI: Herati Hookahs and Heady History

Feb 4, 2020
In a class by itself as historical crossroads go, within Herat’s crumbling walls and precincts hangs a brocade of culture with few equals in the world.  Where else might you find cheek by jowl a citadel of Alexander the Macedonian, records of Nestorian evangelists, tombs of Timur’s martial descendants, traces of Persian poets and philosophers, […]

Mother of All Roadtrips XI: Herati Hookahs and Heady History

February 04, 2020

In a class by itself as historical crossroads go, within Herat’s crumbling walls and precincts hangs a brocade of culture with few equals in the world.  Where else might you find cheek by jowl a citadel of Alexander the Macedonian, records of Nestorian evangelists, tombs of Timur’s martial descendants, traces of Persian poets and philosophers, […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Mother Of All Roadtrips – X: Majesty of Tower and Tunnel

Jan 17, 2020
National Highway 1 from Kabul to Kandahar, will bring you under the walls of the storied, but now humbled, city of Ghazni.  Its ramparts once sheltered brilliant Persian poets the likes of Hakim Sanai, the ‘eyes of Sufi poetry’ and inspiration to Rumi.  The memory of that elegance now in tatters, the city suffers one […]

Mother Of All Roadtrips – X: Majesty of Tower and Tunnel

January 17, 2020

National Highway 1 from Kabul to Kandahar, will bring you under the walls of the storied, but now humbled, city of Ghazni.  Its ramparts once sheltered brilliant Persian poets the likes of Hakim Sanai, the ‘eyes of Sufi poetry’ and inspiration to Rumi.  The memory of that elegance now in tatters, the city suffers one […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Mother of All Roadtrips (IX) – Mirage on the Road to Kabul

Jan 4, 2020
There is a traveler’s proverb in southern Africa, “Tsela e kgopo, ga e latse nageng.’  (The crooked road will not leave you sleeping in the wild.) It applies on the road to Kabul just as readily as elsewhere. True to the proverb’s implied wisdom, the tarmac – but, gated – highway at Surobi (see previous […]

Mother of All Roadtrips (IX) – Mirage on the Road to Kabul

January 04, 2020

There is a traveler’s proverb in southern Africa, “Tsela e kgopo, ga e latse nageng.’  (The crooked road will not leave you sleeping in the wild.) It applies on the road to Kabul just as readily as elsewhere. True to the proverb’s implied wisdom, the tarmac – but, gated – highway at Surobi (see previous […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Mother of All Roadtrips (VIII) – Khyber: Rite of Passage and Prayer

Dec 14, 2019
High in the Maluti mountains of southern Africa, there is a pass for ponies and trekkers called ‘Molimo O Nthuse’ (God help me!), the prayer of mountain travelers everywhere.  Thin air, vagaries of sleet and snow, rude slopes, snake-like footpaths, solitude; all can conspire with lethal effect. Prayer is sometimes the traveler’s only recourse. Such […]

Mother of All Roadtrips (VIII) – Khyber: Rite of Passage and Prayer

December 14, 2019

High in the Maluti mountains of southern Africa, there is a pass for ponies and trekkers called ‘Molimo O Nthuse’ (God help me!), the prayer of mountain travelers everywhere.  Thin air, vagaries of sleet and snow, rude slopes, snake-like footpaths, solitude; all can conspire with lethal effect. Prayer is sometimes the traveler’s only recourse. Such […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Mother Of All Roadtrips – VII: Qissa Khwani, Old Quarter Peshawar

Dec 1, 2019
If you should think the city of Peshawar is just another edge-of-the-mountain town, dust-blown, tattered and gusty with bluster and intrigue, consider this: the very heart of the old quarter is called ‘Qissa Khwani’, the Storytellers’ Bazaar.  Not the bazaar of carpets or of silks, not of walnuts, spices or dried fruit, not of camels, […]

Mother Of All Roadtrips – VII: Qissa Khwani, Old Quarter Peshawar

December 01, 2019

If you should think the city of Peshawar is just another edge-of-the-mountain town, dust-blown, tattered and gusty with bluster and intrigue, consider this: the very heart of the old quarter is called ‘Qissa Khwani’, the Storytellers’ Bazaar.  Not the bazaar of carpets or of silks, not of walnuts, spices or dried fruit, not of camels, […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Mother Of All Roadtrips (MOAR) – VI: Grand Trunk Road

Nov 16, 2019
On the cusp of summer monsoon, but still swirled in dust and heat, our caravan assembled in the town of Raiwind outside Lahore.  Behold! a three-passenger, improvised roof-rack atop the little red VW station wagon, a small trailer with hitch, an assortment of personal and camping gear, four school-leavers, two adults, their young daughter and […]

Mother Of All Roadtrips (MOAR) – VI: Grand Trunk Road

November 16, 2019

On the cusp of summer monsoon, but still swirled in dust and heat, our caravan assembled in the town of Raiwind outside Lahore.  Behold! a three-passenger, improvised roof-rack atop the little red VW station wagon, a small trailer with hitch, an assortment of personal and camping gear, four school-leavers, two adults, their young daughter and […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Mother Of All Roadtrips (MOAR) – V: Darshan in the Indus Valley

Nov 2, 2019
Northeast of the power-stepping guards at the Wagah crossing (see previous post, MOAR IV) there is a telling scene about what borders born of duress can inflict on a populace.  Punjab is the cradle of Sikh faith, home to the great majority of its faithful who now live in India. On a clear day, from […]

Mother Of All Roadtrips (MOAR) – V: Darshan in the Indus Valley

November 02, 2019

Northeast of the power-stepping guards at the Wagah crossing (see previous post, MOAR IV) there is a telling scene about what borders born of duress can inflict on a populace.  Punjab is the cradle of Sikh faith, home to the great majority of its faithful who now live in India. On a clear day, from […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

MOAR IV: Someone’s Walking – Er, Strutting – on My Grave

Oct 18, 2019
It’s ticklish business navigating a cemetery.  There’s that saying, “Someone’s walking on my grave,” prompted by some chill running up the spine.  Travel thoughtfully, not least the great river valleys of the world, and you find stories of near cosmic scale lying at your feet, stories that send a shiver through the soul. A traverse […]

MOAR IV: Someone’s Walking – Er, Strutting – on My Grave

October 18, 2019

It’s ticklish business navigating a cemetery.  There’s that saying, “Someone’s walking on my grave,” prompted by some chill running up the spine.  Travel thoughtfully, not least the great river valleys of the world, and you find stories of near cosmic scale lying at your feet, stories that send a shiver through the soul. A traverse […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Mother Of All Roadtrips – MOAR (III): A Long and Winding Descent

Oct 1, 2019
The Woodstock School campus, midst wooded foothills, has commanding views of some of India’s most sacred geography.  (When Pearl Buck visited she referred breathlessly to the school setting as ‘vertical real estate.’) To the south and east winds the course of the Ganga (Ganges) whose sprawling valley is the axis of Indian civilization.  To the […]

Mother Of All Roadtrips – MOAR (III): A Long and Winding Descent

October 01, 2019

The Woodstock School campus, midst wooded foothills, has commanding views of some of India’s most sacred geography.  (When Pearl Buck visited she referred breathlessly to the school setting as ‘vertical real estate.’) To the south and east winds the course of the Ganga (Ganges) whose sprawling valley is the axis of Indian civilization.  To the […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

The Mother Of All Road Trips (II): A Schoolboy Fantasy

Sep 16, 2019
Almost all epic travels begin in innocence.  The prospective miseries, perils and vagaries of a journey are dwarfed by promise: of discovery, breathless tales, companionship, of besting challenges.  So it was that four school-leavers from an Indian boarding school began dreaming of a Eurasian crossing in the winter of 1965. Our imaginations were aflame with […]

The Mother Of All Road Trips (II): A Schoolboy Fantasy

September 16, 2019

Almost all epic travels begin in innocence.  The prospective miseries, perils and vagaries of a journey are dwarfed by promise: of discovery, breathless tales, companionship, of besting challenges.  So it was that four school-leavers from an Indian boarding school began dreaming of a Eurasian crossing in the winter of 1965. Our imaginations were aflame with […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

The Mother of All Road Trips: Beyond Route 66 (I)

Sep 1, 2019
Got a fantasy road trip squirreled away in the imagination?  Tiptoeing the spine of the Rockies? Tracing the shores of the Great Lakes?  Driving US Route 1 the length of the Eastern Seaboard?  The fantasy jaunt of the American soul would have to be a ramble down U.S. Route 66 – in a tail-finned convertible […]

The Mother of All Road Trips: Beyond Route 66 (I)

September 01, 2019

Got a fantasy road trip squirreled away in the imagination?  Tiptoeing the spine of the Rockies? Tracing the shores of the Great Lakes?  Driving US Route 1 the length of the Eastern Seaboard?  The fantasy jaunt of the American soul would have to be a ramble down U.S. Route 66 – in a tail-finned convertible […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Kashmir: Troubled Jewel of Central Asia

Aug 19, 2019
Few places on earth can rival the exquisite beauty of Kashmir’s Dal Lake, mirror to the Himalayas of central Asia.  Along its shores in morning mist, you might hear the sound of a single, unhurried oar. A shikara (watercraft) slips into view passing wordlessly on its way and then vanishes leaving only a rippling trace.  […]

Kashmir: Troubled Jewel of Central Asia

August 19, 2019

Few places on earth can rival the exquisite beauty of Kashmir’s Dal Lake, mirror to the Himalayas of central Asia.  Along its shores in morning mist, you might hear the sound of a single, unhurried oar. A shikara (watercraft) slips into view passing wordlessly on its way and then vanishes leaving only a rippling trace.  […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Traipser Rule of Thumb: One Soul Salutes Another

Jul 31, 2019
You cannot embark on any daily traipse for more than a few steps before engaging in a universal social ritual: the act of greeting.  Customary though it be, this practice, full of possibility, possesses enormous significance whether in encounter with neighbor, stranger or even stray dog.  Echoing the Hippocratic oath, the rule of thumb for […]

Traipser Rule of Thumb: One Soul Salutes Another

July 31, 2019

You cannot embark on any daily traipse for more than a few steps before engaging in a universal social ritual: the act of greeting.  Customary though it be, this practice, full of possibility, possesses enormous significance whether in encounter with neighbor, stranger or even stray dog.  Echoing the Hippocratic oath, the rule of thumb for […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Helsingborg Hostel: Baltic Straits, Wedding Straits

Jul 12, 2019
In the city of Helsingborg, a ferry ride across from Helsingor (or, ‘Elsinore’, if you’re drafting a tragedy called ‘Hamlet, Prince of Denmark’), there was once a youth hostel on the northern edge of town midst wooded grounds.  It sat on a rise looking down on the city, on the straits to the Baltic Sea, […]

Helsingborg Hostel: Baltic Straits, Wedding Straits

July 12, 2019

In the city of Helsingborg, a ferry ride across from Helsingor (or, ‘Elsinore’, if you’re drafting a tragedy called ‘Hamlet, Prince of Denmark’), there was once a youth hostel on the northern edge of town midst wooded grounds.  It sat on a rise looking down on the city, on the straits to the Baltic Sea, […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

A City Called ‘Fair Winds’: What the Streets Are Saying

Jul 1, 2019
If, having been whisked to a secret southern metropolis and you were there set free on the streets, you’d be forgiven for believing you’d found yourself in Brussels, Vienna or Berlin.  In truth you would be in the Paris of Latin America, Buenos Aires, whose name translates as ‘Fair Winds’.  Famous for bumpy politics, for […]

A City Called ‘Fair Winds’: What the Streets Are Saying

July 01, 2019

If, having been whisked to a secret southern metropolis and you were there set free on the streets, you’d be forgiven for believing you’d found yourself in Brussels, Vienna or Berlin.  In truth you would be in the Paris of Latin America, Buenos Aires, whose name translates as ‘Fair Winds’.  Famous for bumpy politics, for […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Weirdness in the Death Zone: A Tale of the Odd-Number Sardine

Jun 14, 2019
They’re up there still.  Hundreds of tents pitched in the rubble field at base camp on Everest.  Climbers – some, at best bricoleurs – and their Sherpa guides wait for that window of clear days before the monsoon that offers some chance of summiting the mother of all mountains, Chomolungma, 29,035’ of rock, icefall, crevasses, […]

Weirdness in the Death Zone: A Tale of the Odd-Number Sardine

June 14, 2019

They’re up there still.  Hundreds of tents pitched in the rubble field at base camp on Everest.  Climbers – some, at best bricoleurs – and their Sherpa guides wait for that window of clear days before the monsoon that offers some chance of summiting the mother of all mountains, Chomolungma, 29,035’ of rock, icefall, crevasses, […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Saturday in Brussels: Waffles, Tintin, Godot … and Waffles

Jun 1, 2019
The city of Brussels takes itself pretty seriously.  It devotes itself to the tricky business of holding together a quarrelsome bilingual country, to projects like the 28-member European Union and to the colossus known as NATO.  The city bristles with all-work, no-play diplomats, soldiers, journalists and lobbyists. Whatever sunshine might be left under such dour […]

Saturday in Brussels: Waffles, Tintin, Godot … and Waffles

June 01, 2019

The city of Brussels takes itself pretty seriously.  It devotes itself to the tricky business of holding together a quarrelsome bilingual country, to projects like the 28-member European Union and to the colossus known as NATO.  The city bristles with all-work, no-play diplomats, soldiers, journalists and lobbyists. Whatever sunshine might be left under such dour […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Desert Tales: When Hunter Becomes Prey*

May 15, 2019
In the 1950s sub-Sahara Africa, still in colonial thrall, was a kind of wild west while the rest of the world restored what had been shattered by world war.  The grasslands of Africa, thronged with wild life, remained in many places open range. In what was then a sleepy Chobe River village called Kasane (see […]

Desert Tales: When Hunter Becomes Prey*

May 15, 2019

In the 1950s sub-Sahara Africa, still in colonial thrall, was a kind of wild west while the rest of the world restored what had been shattered by world war.  The grasslands of Africa, thronged with wild life, remained in many places open range. In what was then a sleepy Chobe River village called Kasane (see […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Desert Tales: Of Rustlers and Saving Refreshment

May 2, 2019
A close friend of mine once served as a policeman in Kalahari ranching country.  As happens where cattle roam arid grazing land, rustlers find opportunity to lead away valuable critters on the hoof when no one is watching.  My friend was assigned to investigate just such a case. With a contingent of fellow officers he […]

Desert Tales: Of Rustlers and Saving Refreshment

May 02, 2019

A close friend of mine once served as a policeman in Kalahari ranching country.  As happens where cattle roam arid grazing land, rustlers find opportunity to lead away valuable critters on the hoof when no one is watching.  My friend was assigned to investigate just such a case. With a contingent of fellow officers he […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Going Deep and Wild: Ramble With a Kalahari San Traveler

Apr 13, 2019
I stood hitchhiking across from the Kalahari Arms Hotel at a crossroads in Botswana’s ranching country.  Hang around the Arms long enough and old timers will tell with glee about the goat known to wander in at drowsy midday hours to devour the bar kitty leaving only coins as a tip.  Kalahari survival has its […]

Going Deep and Wild: Ramble With a Kalahari San Traveler

April 13, 2019

I stood hitchhiking across from the Kalahari Arms Hotel at a crossroads in Botswana’s ranching country.  Hang around the Arms long enough and old timers will tell with glee about the goat known to wander in at drowsy midday hours to devour the bar kitty leaving only coins as a tip.  Kalahari survival has its […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Going Deep: Singing Crawdads and Lithophones

Mar 30, 2019
Delia Owens, wildlife conservationist and briefly a neighbor in the Kalahari, has now written a crime novel set in coastal Carolina.  ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’, the title taken from her mother’s term for the back-of-the-back-of-beyond where the wilds harbor impossible beauty and secrets, is a nod towards the music – the exquisite music – inherent […]

Going Deep: Singing Crawdads and Lithophones

March 30, 2019

Delia Owens, wildlife conservationist and briefly a neighbor in the Kalahari, has now written a crime novel set in coastal Carolina.  ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’, the title taken from her mother’s term for the back-of-the-back-of-beyond where the wilds harbor impossible beauty and secrets, is a nod towards the music – the exquisite music – inherent […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

A House Called ‘Deliverance’

Mar 16, 2019
Our family traipse – not unlike Viking forbears who once sailed the Volga and traded wares on the Silk Road –  began long ago in a Minnesota winter, with ports of call like Shanghai, Hong Kong, Penang, Rangoon and Chittagong, mostly aboard plucky freighters.  In time, we came to live on the verge of the […]

A House Called ‘Deliverance’

March 16, 2019

Our family traipse – not unlike Viking forbears who once sailed the Volga and traded wares on the Silk Road –  began long ago in a Minnesota winter, with ports of call like Shanghai, Hong Kong, Penang, Rangoon and Chittagong, mostly aboard plucky freighters.  In time, we came to live on the verge of the […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

The Bones: Buried – and Empowered – at the Crossroads

Feb 28, 2019
Scattered across southern Africa, at highway intersections, as at village crossroads, an unnoticed dynamic is in play.  In the dead of night, a traditional healer has crept on to the scene and buried there, in secret, the tools of a diviner’s trade: small bits of bone, shells, sundry coins, buttons and stones.  In a region […]

The Bones: Buried – and Empowered – at the Crossroads

February 28, 2019

Scattered across southern Africa, at highway intersections, as at village crossroads, an unnoticed dynamic is in play.  In the dead of night, a traditional healer has crept on to the scene and buried there, in secret, the tools of a diviner’s trade: small bits of bone, shells, sundry coins, buttons and stones.  In a region […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Molepolole: Dark Beauty Below the Roofing Sheets

Feb 17, 2019
From earliest times, water sources and wells have been the scene of rare encounter, of betrothal and alliance, of secrets, struggles and dreams, yes, and of slaking thirst for mortal and beast, nowhere more earnestly than in the arid interiors of the planet’s landmasses.  When desert winds drive storms of dust and sand, when the […]

Molepolole: Dark Beauty Below the Roofing Sheets

February 17, 2019

From earliest times, water sources and wells have been the scene of rare encounter, of betrothal and alliance, of secrets, struggles and dreams, yes, and of slaking thirst for mortal and beast, nowhere more earnestly than in the arid interiors of the planet’s landmasses.  When desert winds drive storms of dust and sand, when the […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Mahatma and the Mariners: Tales of the Malabar Coast

Jan 31, 2019
Plant yourself in the sand of the Kerala seashore, the Arabian Sea creaming at your feet, a warm westerly caressing your face.  This is the Malabar coast. Spice garden of the East, fantasy of mariners drawn by the fragrance – and fortunes – of cardamom, cinnamon, ginger and clove. They came by turn from ancient […]

Mahatma and the Mariners: Tales of the Malabar Coast

January 31, 2019

Plant yourself in the sand of the Kerala seashore, the Arabian Sea creaming at your feet, a warm westerly caressing your face.  This is the Malabar coast. Spice garden of the East, fantasy of mariners drawn by the fragrance – and fortunes – of cardamom, cinnamon, ginger and clove. They came by turn from ancient […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Sixth-Day Fellowship: Of Labor, Mischief and Mirth

Jan 15, 2019
The story board of sacred writ recounts that in their beginnings, humankind and the animals were created on the same day, the sixth day (Genesis 1:24-31).  This arrangement surely suggests some commonality, perhaps even fellowship, while serving also as a check on our hubris. That whatever the glories of angel-flight inspiration and achievement, we can […]

Sixth-Day Fellowship: Of Labor, Mischief and Mirth

January 15, 2019

The story board of sacred writ recounts that in their beginnings, humankind and the animals were created on the same day, the sixth day (Genesis 1:24-31).  This arrangement surely suggests some commonality, perhaps even fellowship, while serving also as a check on our hubris. That whatever the glories of angel-flight inspiration and achievement, we can […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Christmas Carol From A Kingston ‘Long-Drop’

Jan 5, 2019
Beyond the Jamaica cruise stops of Negril, Montego Bay and Ocho Rios, there is an island world of richest stories, stories of suffering and dark struggle but told with lyric heart.  Who hasn’t danced to the reggae music of Bob Marley and the Wailers or been schooled by their torchy ballads of yearning for freedom […]

Christmas Carol From A Kingston ‘Long-Drop’

January 05, 2019

Beyond the Jamaica cruise stops of Negril, Montego Bay and Ocho Rios, there is an island world of richest stories, stories of suffering and dark struggle but told with lyric heart.  Who hasn’t danced to the reggae music of Bob Marley and the Wailers or been schooled by their torchy ballads of yearning for freedom […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Pitseng: Jetlag in a Kalahari Hamlet

Dec 16, 2018
Consider the French word, dépaysé.  It aptly describes travelers who after long east-west travels clamber off holiday jets in the likes of Hawaii, the Costa del Sol, Capetown or Baku.  The French term means literally ‘un-countried’. Otherwise, in English, it can mean ‘dazed’ or ‘bewildered’. For moderns accustomed to the reach of transcontinental jets, it […]

Pitseng: Jetlag in a Kalahari Hamlet

December 16, 2018

Consider the French word, dépaysé.  It aptly describes travelers who after long east-west travels clamber off holiday jets in the likes of Hawaii, the Costa del Sol, Capetown or Baku.  The French term means literally ‘un-countried’. Otherwise, in English, it can mean ‘dazed’ or ‘bewildered’. For moderns accustomed to the reach of transcontinental jets, it […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Fireside Vision at the Back-of-Beyond

Dec 3, 2018
The Trans-Kalahari highway leads west northwest out of Lobatse one of Botswana’s earliest western-style towns. (It contained at independence in 1966 the only stretch of tarred road in a country larger than France.)  Once past Kanye, the land lies wide and open toward the ‘big dry’, the Kalahari, deepest overlay of sand on the planet. […]

Fireside Vision at the Back-of-Beyond

December 03, 2018

The Trans-Kalahari highway leads west northwest out of Lobatse one of Botswana’s earliest western-style towns. (It contained at independence in 1966 the only stretch of tarred road in a country larger than France.)  Once past Kanye, the land lies wide and open toward the ‘big dry’, the Kalahari, deepest overlay of sand on the planet. […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Side Street in Phnom Penh (II): Of Nightmares and ‘Speakeasy’

Nov 16, 2018
Faithful rule-of-thumb in travels: the richest stories lie in the side streets, the smoky recesses of courtyards and tea stalls.  My Sunday meander down an alley in Phnom Penh ran true to form. Having heard the account of a young Khmer musician’s love of a grandfather (see previous post), I waited in a church anteroom […]

Side Street in Phnom Penh (II): Of Nightmares and ‘Speakeasy’

November 16, 2018

Faithful rule-of-thumb in travels: the richest stories lie in the side streets, the smoky recesses of courtyards and tea stalls.  My Sunday meander down an alley in Phnom Penh ran true to form. Having heard the account of a young Khmer musician’s love of a grandfather (see previous post), I waited in a church anteroom […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Side Street in Phnom Penh: Music From a Grandfather’s War Wounds

Nov 2, 2018
On a side street in downtown Phnom Penh, Cambodia, you’ll find a homely little Anglican church.  If you saunter by of a Sunday, as I did not long ago, you might notice that several people linger on the premises after morning services.  It was enough, at my visit, to draw me in, on the chance […]

Side Street in Phnom Penh: Music From a Grandfather’s War Wounds

November 02, 2018

On a side street in downtown Phnom Penh, Cambodia, you’ll find a homely little Anglican church.  If you saunter by of a Sunday, as I did not long ago, you might notice that several people linger on the premises after morning services.  It was enough, at my visit, to draw me in, on the chance […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

What Terror From the Deep Can Leave Behind (II) Night Bus to Mandalay – and to a Tsunami Story

Oct 17, 2018
There is hardly any place name, with the possible exception of ‘Shangri-La’, that is quite so evocative as ‘Mandalay’. Nearly all of its associations for the West are Kipling-esque ‘images of oriental kingdoms and tropical splendor’*. Dozens of book titles, songs and hotel names have ridden the crest of those images to fame and riches. […]

What Terror From the Deep Can Leave Behind (II) Night Bus to Mandalay – and to a Tsunami Story

October 17, 2018

There is hardly any place name, with the possible exception of ‘Shangri-La’, that is quite so evocative as ‘Mandalay’. Nearly all of its associations for the West are Kipling-esque ‘images of oriental kingdoms and tropical splendor’*. Dozens of book titles, songs and hotel names have ridden the crest of those images to fame and riches. […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Tsunami: What Terror From the Deep Can Leave Behind. (I)

Oct 1, 2018
In these last hours, video has captured a tsunami rolling ashore in the town of Palu, Sulawesi, Indonesia. Ten-foot waves can be seen in the background sweeping structures, palm trees and debris before them. The death toll, sure to rise, stands at 830. The images recalled what the world observed in horror on December 26, […]

Tsunami: What Terror From the Deep Can Leave Behind. (I)

October 01, 2018

In these last hours, video has captured a tsunami rolling ashore in the town of Palu, Sulawesi, Indonesia. Ten-foot waves can be seen in the background sweeping structures, palm trees and debris before them. The death toll, sure to rise, stands at 830. The images recalled what the world observed in horror on December 26, […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Temples to Tea, Shrines for the Traveler

Sep 19, 2018
Camelia sinensis: the wind beneath the traveler’s wings.  ‘Cha’, ‘sah’, ‘chay’. Known to the West as ‘tea’.  Across Asia and now the planet, this infusion of legend and mystery is on offer, be it in the exquisite tea houses of Kyoto and Dushanbe or in the humblest roadside shelters.  Whatever its shrine, tea commands a […]

Temples to Tea, Shrines for the Traveler

September 19, 2018

Camelia sinensis: the wind beneath the traveler’s wings.  ‘Cha’, ‘sah’, ‘chay’. Known to the West as ‘tea’.  Across Asia and now the planet, this infusion of legend and mystery is on offer, be it in the exquisite tea houses of Kyoto and Dushanbe or in the humblest roadside shelters.  Whatever its shrine, tea commands a […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Hole-In-The-Day: Manoomin, Treaty Rights and Deferred Harvest

Sep 1, 2018
Come November 22nd this year, discriminating families at Thanksgiving tables will sit up – unawares – to turkey stuffed with the makings of an epic and delectable tale.  It is the tale of ‘manoomin’, the sacred wild rice that grows across northern Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the prairie provinces of Canada. Stand on the cat-tail fringes […]

Hole-In-The-Day: Manoomin, Treaty Rights and Deferred Harvest

September 01, 2018

Come November 22nd this year, discriminating families at Thanksgiving tables will sit up – unawares – to turkey stuffed with the makings of an epic and delectable tale.  It is the tale of ‘manoomin’, the sacred wild rice that grows across northern Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the prairie provinces of Canada. Stand on the cat-tail fringes […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Makgadikgadi: Soul Depths On A Salt Flat

Aug 14, 2018
If the Okavango Delta resembles a primordial Eden, then the neighboring Makgadikgadi Pans may be a picture of a climate-changed future, at least for the drought-prone swatches of the earth.  Larger than the entire state of Connecticut, a baked crust of white clay stretches virtually without a single landmark, one of the largest salt flats […]

Makgadikgadi: Soul Depths On A Salt Flat

August 14, 2018

If the Okavango Delta resembles a primordial Eden, then the neighboring Makgadikgadi Pans may be a picture of a climate-changed future, at least for the drought-prone swatches of the earth.  Larger than the entire state of Connecticut, a baked crust of white clay stretches virtually without a single landmark, one of the largest salt flats […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Safari To Dislocation – And Time Immemorial

Jul 31, 2018
Safari (meaning ‘visit’ or ‘trip’ in Ki-swahili) has been a staple of Western travelers since Victorian times when outsiders with prodigious ‘kit’ came on tour to the bush country of Africa’s wild interior. Teddy Roosevelt figures high on the list of notables who tried their luck on the savannah. The tally of trophies taken in […]

Safari To Dislocation – And Time Immemorial

July 31, 2018

Safari (meaning ‘visit’ or ‘trip’ in Ki-swahili) has been a staple of Western travelers since Victorian times when outsiders with prodigious ‘kit’ came on tour to the bush country of Africa’s wild interior. Teddy Roosevelt figures high on the list of notables who tried their luck on the savannah. The tally of trophies taken in […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Manhandled By Africa’s Beauty: The Smoke That Thunders*

Jul 14, 2018
Beauty in these wild places of Africa comes in two guises. There’s the filigree of a camelthorn tree against the dawn. Or in the rainforest the old-growth trees holding up in reverence a canopy that suffuses the underlay in green light. The only sounds: the rapping of rain from a shower striking the giant leaves […]

Manhandled By Africa’s Beauty: The Smoke That Thunders*

July 14, 2018

Beauty in these wild places of Africa comes in two guises. There’s the filigree of a camelthorn tree against the dawn. Or in the rainforest the old-growth trees holding up in reverence a canopy that suffuses the underlay in green light. The only sounds: the rapping of rain from a shower striking the giant leaves […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Royalty of the Thirstland: Is It End Game For The Baobabs?

Jun 30, 2018
It’s the baobabs that will follow you home. Mysterious, massive, silent, on gnarled pillars they dominate the Kalahari thorn scrub, and the imagination. Ancient beyond telling, they are the grand elders of Africa’s arid hinterland, sentinels of the passing millennia. Now they’re dying. And no one knows why. news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/06/oldest-tress-africa-baobabs-dead-climate-science/ The San say that the creator […]

Royalty of the Thirstland: Is It End Game For The Baobabs?

June 30, 2018

It’s the baobabs that will follow you home. Mysterious, massive, silent, on gnarled pillars they dominate the Kalahari thorn scrub, and the imagination. Ancient beyond telling, they are the grand elders of Africa’s arid hinterland, sentinels of the passing millennia. Now they’re dying. And no one knows why. news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/06/oldest-tress-africa-baobabs-dead-climate-science/ The San say that the creator […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Lamps in the Night

Jun 15, 2018
In the winter of 1984, a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India malfunctioned in the morning darkness.  Poor maintenance and disabled safety systems took a savage toll as a cloud of toxic gas blanketed a sleeping city.  More than 2,000 nearby slum-dwellers never woke up in their shacks. And a further 510,000 who survived, […]

Lamps in the Night

June 15, 2018

In the winter of 1984, a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India malfunctioned in the morning darkness.  Poor maintenance and disabled safety systems took a savage toll as a cloud of toxic gas blanketed a sleeping city.  More than 2,000 nearby slum-dwellers never woke up in their shacks. And a further 510,000 who survived, […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Lohit River Poetry

Jun 1, 2018
Master bard, T. S. Eliot, once confessed that his poetic sensibilities he owed to life on the banks of great rivers.  His cadence, images and rhythms were borrowed, it seems, from the Mississippi and his adopted Thames. A meander up the dramatic mountain course of northeast India’s Lohit River begs for powerful poetry, too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lohit_River […]

Lohit River Poetry

June 01, 2018

Master bard, T. S. Eliot, once confessed that his poetic sensibilities he owed to life on the banks of great rivers.  His cadence, images and rhythms were borrowed, it seems, from the Mississippi and his adopted Thames. A meander up the dramatic mountain course of northeast India’s Lohit River begs for powerful poetry, too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lohit_River […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Christmas Counterpoint on the Far Side of the World

May 15, 2018
Vexing religious issues, sometimes triggering savage cruelty, now figure weekly in world headlines. Indonesia (home to Bali’s refined culture and world-class beaches, the astonishing Borobudur temple complex, Java’s version of Angkor Wat, and a thousand natural wonders) has suffered its share of turmoil.  One winter, my wife, Mary Kay and I flew to visit our […]

Christmas Counterpoint on the Far Side of the World

May 15, 2018

Vexing religious issues, sometimes triggering savage cruelty, now figure weekly in world headlines. Indonesia (home to Bali’s refined culture and world-class beaches, the astonishing Borobudur temple complex, Java’s version of Angkor Wat, and a thousand natural wonders) has suffered its share of turmoil.  One winter, my wife, Mary Kay and I flew to visit our […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Doorway By the Sea

May 1, 2018
Beyond a sea of springtime desert flowers on a bluff overlooking South Africa’s Saldanha Bay, there stands an inn.  Its entryway is a colossal wooden door whose carving and rough iron bolts whisper tales of Tuareg caravans plodding the Sahara. You cannot help but wonder what travelers once found shelter from marauder or harmattan (West […]

Doorway By the Sea

May 01, 2018

Beyond a sea of springtime desert flowers on a bluff overlooking South Africa’s Saldanha Bay, there stands an inn.  Its entryway is a colossal wooden door whose carving and rough iron bolts whisper tales of Tuareg caravans plodding the Sahara. You cannot help but wonder what travelers once found shelter from marauder or harmattan (West […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

Once Upon a Train (part 2)  

Apr 15, 2018
            Intrigued by Daniels’ narrative, and by what if any after-story might await discovery, I set out to learn more.  On a winter afternoon, 38 years after the events in the story, I boarded the afternoon train in Kandy bound for Gampola and Nawalapitiya.  As I sat awaiting departure on a jewel-like day, I could imagine the figures […]

Once Upon a Train (part 2)  

April 15, 2018

            Intrigued by Daniels’ narrative, and by what if any after-story might await discovery, I set out to learn more.  On a winter afternoon, 38 years after the events in the story, I boarded the afternoon train in Kandy bound for Gampola and Nawalapitiya.  As I sat awaiting departure on a jewel-like day, I could imagine the figures […]

Written by Jonathan Larson

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