Published in Art Is Fear·Jan 3Alive, Alive, OhWalking around Dublin with James Joyce in search of lemon soap — When we arrived at Sweny’s Pharmacy, the lights were on but the doors locked and no one seemed to be inside. I was devastated, foiled in my quest to purchase a bar of lemon soap like the one Leopold Bloom acquired for his wife Molly in chapter 5 of Ulysses. …Ireland3 min readIreland3 min read
Published in Art Is Fear·Dec 8, 2022Fight for a better America!When I first started organizing conversations with my political opposites in 2016, I was simply trying to understand why they elected an abhorrent man to lead our country. After gaining a clearer, though by no means perfect, understanding, I embarked on a multi-state effort to bridge political divides and depolarize…Politics2 min readPolitics2 min read
Published in Art Is Fear·Oct 31, 2022I am a pink beret!I’m starting up my salon conversations again. Join me? — My birthday month concludes today. I’ve organized some pretty spectacular celebrations for myself over the years, but recent gatherings have been smaller and more low key, even since before the pandemic stifled socializing. …Art5 min readArt5 min read
Published in Art Is Fear·Oct 24, 2022Know ThyselfIs there a word in English that describes that moment when you think of the perfect reply too late? The French call it l’esprit de l’escalier, which means you have thought of a witty comeback when you reach the bottom of the staircase after having left the party. This happened…Art4 min readArt4 min read
Published in Art Is Fear·Sep 27, 2022One True SentenceI struggled to write all Sunday afternoon about a day I’d spent sailing around the Chesapeake Bay, laughing with friends on a beautiful early autumn day, reading poetry aloud to each other, goofing off in sarongs, drinking bubbly wine out of spill-proof cups, sharing book recommendations, including one I’d recently…Poetry2 min readPoetry2 min read
Published in Art Is Fear·Aug 22, 2022And thence we came forth to see again the starsI’m sitting at the Unicorner Cafe again exactly one year after I arrived in Paris last summer on a self-directed writing residency that was supposed to last six weeks. After three months, I returned to the U.S. with half a book and haven’t written much more since. I won’t finish…Travel6 min readTravel6 min read
Published in Art Is Fear·Aug 14, 2022Letter from MostarAt the small Museum of War and Genocide Victims in Mostar, one Google reviewer wrote: “It was ‘only’ a collection of items from the war.” The walls were lined with plastic vitrines containing personal items like a towel, backpacks, coats, and other plain everyday things. These objects belonged to…Mostar6 min readMostar6 min read
Published in Art Is Fear·Aug 5, 2022Letter from the Accursed MountainsI cursed as I plodded up a gravelly trail through the Accursed Mountains, the Albanian Alps, from Valbona to Theth. The Balkan mountain range was raw, jagged, and patched with glacial moraines. The trail began with a long mostly flat section through a bright white rocky river bed and then…Travel13 min readTravel13 min read
Published in Art Is Fear·Aug 2, 2022My pal has joined the starsI stood at the top of a peak in the Accursed Mountains (the Albanian Alps!) a few days ago feeling awe and wonder mixed with sadness for the death of my brilliant, generous, and complicated pal Alberto Gaitan. I cried cathartic tears. And then I cried again a few hours…Eulogy3 min readEulogy3 min read
Published in Art Is Fear·Jul 25, 2022Human relationships are the only thing that matterWhat eating olive oil and prosciutto in Tuscany taught me about friendship and human connections — We are sitting on a Tuscan terrace with a glass of sparkling rosé as the sun sets beyond a grove of olive trees behind the villa where my friend Umberto lives with his wife Fulvia and daughter Corrina. Umberto doesn’t usually drink prosecco, probably because it’s from the north and…Travel5 min readTravel5 min read