Tag Archives: history
This is now
In Egyptian mummies, smallpox. This was before. Before Christ, maybe before God, maybe before salvation. Who can say when God was born? And whether God’s countenance was immaculate or scarred by pustules swollen with fluid, turbid and sunken, though not from great pox — which was syphilis, and thus unworthy of God — but a […]
Tullio Di Sandro sings
a song of remorse a song for the dead muddled in his native tongue in his immigrant heart wanting life for her not death Mia figlia, il mio cuore a dirge for what cannot be undone a lament for love and fear wed in the catastrophic instant she dropped from his coarse and tender hands […]
Gettysburg
I tell you I was holy then. Soil rich and black as pitch air so moist every leaf could drink freely cows grazed my verdant flanks their soft dumb eyes innocent as daybreak people drank amiably at taverns built carriages made shoes tanned the hides of soft dumb cows gone to slaughter before slaughter became the […]
In Memoriam
They were names I didn’t recognize, names I’d never heard: Alice Herz, Norman Morrison, Roger Allen LaPorte, Florence Beaumont, George Winne, Jr. Five Americans who, between 1965 and 1970, publicly self-immolated — set themselves fatally afire — to protest the Vietnam War. I am thinking of them on Memorial Day, when we traditionally commemorate Americans who gave their lives in […]
Tullio Di Sandro Sings
a song of remorse a song for the dead muddled in his native tongue in his immigrant heart wanting life for her not death Mia figlia, il mio cuore a dirge for what cannot be undone a lament for love and fear wed in the catastrophic instant she dropped from his coarse and tender hands […]
Courage
The January 31, 1955 cover of Sports Illustrated featured a fresh-faced young skier, blonde curls falling languidly over her sun-and-snow tanned forehead, blue eyes meeting the photographer’s lens with a seriousness that belied her exuberant personality. Her name was Jill Kinmont, and at 18, she was the national slalom champ and a likely medal contender in […]
Tullio Di Sandro sings
a song of remorse a song for the dead muddled in his native tongue in his immigrant heart wanting life for her not death Mia figlia, il mio cuore a dirge for what cannot be undone a lament for love and fear wed in the catastrophic instant she dropped from his coarse and tender hands […]
The bright side
As Americans’ traditional feast day approaches, I’ve been considering Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Thanksgiving proclamation. It’s remarkable for its stubborn optimism, achieved in part by de-emphasizing the harsh reality then encompassing the nation. Here’s an excerpt: “In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to […]
Carnegie’s paradox
I have recently been on a classics kick of sorts, exploring books I have long heard referenced but never read. Having considered Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, which contemplates the purpose of our individual lives, I am now immersed in a book that tackles an even more perplexing question: How the heck can we […]
Meditatio Ephemera 
Fake news … anchors
Now from China comes word that human television newscasters will soon be joined by salary-saving, computer-generated simulations that can work around the clock. Here’s Xinhua News Agency’s first English-speaking artificial intelligence anchor, bringing you news of its existence: I suppose fake news anchors are the logical next step in technology’s gutting of an honorable profession […]