Category Archives: Uncategorized

If you haven’t grown up in a religious family, you still celebrate Christmas. Although you may also celebrate Hannukah and Kwanzaa. To me Christmas is really a celebration of the family, of the joy of giving and receiving, anticipating what might delight members of the immediate and the acquired families. It is thinking of others. WhetherContinue reading “Christmas Memories”

As dusk falls, as the years gather like clouds, I sit at my desk searching, reaching for thoughts and words that sometimes seem to hover out of reach. The cat on the windowsill knocks softly on the pane. “Oh come on. Please let me in. It’s getting cold out here. It used to be funContinue reading “So Says the Cat”

Back in the year 2021, If I thought at all, I never thought I’d still Be writing two years hence. Yet now in 2023. The day begins again. Again and again. For others it has ended. One can’t help wondering When ours will also end And there will be no new beginning. One can’t helpContinue reading “Thoughts on Mortality”

Bruschetta, the likes of which there is none other. And please, please, don’t pronounce it with an sh sound. It is brusketta (like kettle). So what is it and where does it come from? The two main ingredients (well perhaps three) are the new olive oil and what can be considered real bread. By whichContinue reading “In Praise of Bruschetta”

Hidden churches, saints in small side chapels blessing the city. Steep  streets – well, there’s really only one in this town – where the farmers who came to market with their donkeys tied them up and then had fried cod washed down with a glass of Orvieto wine before returning home. There is only oneContinue reading “One Man’s Grand Tour of The City Part III”

The town itself isn’t large with fewer than 6000 inhabitants on top of the cliff. While there are many other towns that would claim your interest, this one is special. You may have been on your way to Rome and suddenly there’s this cliff rising up over the valley. It might be spring, the treesContinue reading “One Man’s Grand Tour of The City Part I”

Around the corner from where I live, there’s a coffee/wine bar called the Blue Bar. Down in the valley, there’s also a Green Bar and somewhere there’s a Red Bar, aside from a couple of others with names like Obelix and Asterix. The one I frequent is Blue Bar, which is not very large. ThereContinue reading “Blue Bar”

Sometimes a phrase, a word, read or heard, remains with us throughout the day, or week, or more. This is certainly the case with Shakespeare or Robert Frost. My love affair with both goes back to the 7th or 8th grade. What impressed their words on my mind? The sound, or the idea? When orContinue reading “Wheels and Words Part II”

Person-to-person is best, you say. I answer, sometimes, but not always. Perhaps it depends on what you are used to, best at ease with, grew up with. You can exchange ideas, like batting a ball back and forth in a ping-pong game. On the other hand if it’s a chess game, you need time toContinue reading “Person to Person”

Laughter means contentment. It means happiness, perhaps fleetingly, but for those few moments when we laugh, we are happy. There are synonyms and antonyms to happiness. Joy, delight, elation. It’s opposite despair, tribulation, misery, unhappiness. All of which seem rather drastic. There must be some kind of middle ground.  Take joy. Use with joy itContinue reading “Joy”

My shrinking and my expanding worlds As we grow older, our world shrinks. Eventually, those few steps between chair and bed, that physical world that others see as “us”, will diminish day by day. Of the countless contacts we had before, most of them are now virtual. Space and time become meaningless. Yet, that endlessContinue reading “Shrinking Universe”

On seeing It’s a small town. In around 20 minutes, I have an appointment at the health clinic at the other end of town.  Although I would once have walked there, a bus is now more convenient. The bus stop is right by the local bank and I’m early. I’ve had my morning cappuccino so I’llContinue reading “A Small Town: Part II On Seeing”

My town is definitely a small town. Which means I’m not invisible. I don’t have to be eccentric, or construct a specific persona for myself. Sometimes ,I wonder though if it’s my dog rather than me who is being noted. Once, in Florence, I was walking down a street near the cathedral and I feltContinue reading “A Small Town: Part I On Being Seen”

CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH Venice, the year 2000 An exhibition entitled COSMOS  L’arte alla scoperta dell’ìnfinito The students we are accompanying have gone on to discover Venice on their own. As we wander on, just my friend and me, we discover an exhibition in Palazzo Grassi that looks interesting. What I remember most today, 23 yearsContinue reading “Ambiguity”

Years ago, I lost a purple glove at the supermarket. I had removed it to pull out my shopping list and when I got to the checkout, well, there was only one glove keeping my potatoes and yogurts company. Despite backtracking and asking, no one had seen a single glove of any kind looking forContinue reading “Lost and Found”

A gift implies a future. Christmas had passed and the manger scene put away. I discover an unopened box next to my computer. With my name written on it. It is from the shop that sells notebooks with hand-made paper bindings and special pens. Inside, when I finally get around to opening it, is aContinue reading “Aftermath of the Holidays Part I”

As I move uphill, I can’t help but notice the bookshop window with the rows of books looking out at me. I can see the owner, Gianluca, in the back.  I poke my head in and ask him how come he called his shop Arcimboldo. “Well, there’s that famous 16th century painter who created portraitsContinue reading “Who Owns Whom Part II”

Orvieto valley One would think that the valley seen from Ripa Medici in Orvieto would lend itself to a written description. Yet analysis in words seems to elude me. Perhaps because I always have a dog in tow. Walking along the streets at midday, it is September and the summer heat has abated, the differenceContinue reading “Words 2”

A photo gives you the impression of a moment. A photo gives you everything in your field of vision, the background, the surroundings, make themselves heard as loudly as what you are focusing on. With your iPhones you are documenting your presence in a certain place at a certain time. The very fact that youContinue reading “Impressions: The Photograph”