Tag Archive | France
Worlds Apart
Hello dear readers, I have been offline for a while. My son just turned 18 and had his first day of classes at the University of Helsinki in Finland today. It has and continues to be a great adventure for both of us! I just returned to the United States after spending nearly two weeks […]
Merci, les travailleurs de France!
Hello readers, When I lived in France, I enjoyed a simple lifestyle, spending most of my time doing the kind of work I wanted to do. I made about half what I make today in the U.S. (which is not very much), but in France I was able to save money, take vacations, and […]
France vs. USA: dare to complain!
Hello readers, Over the last 40 or so years, ordinary working Americans have progressively lost many of our freedoms and most of our rights. Most of us are worried about the future. Most of us worry about money, the environment, about whether or not we can ever afford to stop working and pursue our dreams. […]
What we value: let’s change one simple thing
Hello readers, I felt really proud when I heard a comment from French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, who is currently presiding over the Paris climate talks. He noted that it is our responsibility, as western powers, to help countries across the African continent who are currently experiencing significant damage (terrible drought) from climate change. Africa […]
Sacred Blank (a poem)
Hacked off ancients’ crowned heads the basilica now humming sacred whispers below a hip hop rhythm animates restless adults j’suis pas charlie pas que les mômes no meaning no purpose skin burns with underlying need social security not enough to pacify a hungry soul if words were to flow like blood restore high water a […]
Nationalism and Fundamentalism: Two Faces of Fear
Hello readers, Many of us around the world have been closely following the news during and following the terror attacks in and around Paris, France that killed over twenty people, including the majority of the editorial staff of satirical journal Charlie Hebdo, three police officers, and four Jewish civilians, as well as the perpetrators of […]
Krill: A Short Story
The beach was littered with glass eyes. Not the kind that fit into the orbits of human skulls, but rather the type that look like buttons adorning the faces of ragdolls. Seagulls homed in on the sandy strip, lunging for tender tidbits of raw flesh, hoping to satisfy their cavernous appetites. The air was calm […]
How Can You Tell If You Are Thirsty?
Hello readers, Currently, I am reading (among other books!), “Your Body’s Many Cries for Water: You Are Not Sick, You Are Thirsty!), by F. Batmanghelidj. The cover of theolder edition (see above) is fairly lurid, and the author goes by the nickname “Batman”, but his arguments are clear and convincing. If you are the type […]
La Vie de Boheme: a slice of memory
Hello readers, Today a patron at the library where I work used the term “la vie de boheme” to describe a book we had both read, “How Should a Person Be?”, by Canadian author Sheila Heti. The expression brings back to me my younger years in Paris, as well as the eponymous 1992 film directed […]
Living at the Palacio d’Abraxas: A Life Changing Experience
Hello readers, The last nine years I lived in France, I made my home at the Palacio d’Abraxas (see photo above) in Noisy-le-Grand. The Palacio is an income based public housing complex owned by a private company, in which there are renters and owners. Each apartment has a different floor plan, and some are on a single […]
Living Simply: A New Standard of Living
Hello readers, I have always aspired to living simply, and for the most part, I feel I have succeeded. Although I have never earned much more than $20,000 a year, I manage to live simply with a focus on enjoying the moment. I feel that a high standard of living means doing work that has meaning, having […]
“Shoot First” Laws and Self-Mastery as a Way to Peaceful Interactions
Hello readers, I received the following e-mail message today from ColorOfChange.org, a non-profit organization that works to promote equal rights for minorities in this country. ” Jordan Russell Davis didn’t have to die. Last Friday, the 17 year-old Black teenager was shot in a Jacksonville convenience store parking lot after a dispute over loud music.1 He […]
The Courage to Unfold
Hello readers, Right now I am wrestling with the unfolding of the next stage in my life. I feel the necessity of moving on, to leaving my current work, to shedding my current skin for a larger and more complex hide, to accommodate a newer version of myself. I am leading myself to believe that […]
Laughter: Path to Living the Mystery
Dear readers, Thinking about life, love, creativity, and art are some of the things that make me feel very happy. This morning, as I was shelving holds at my library job, I was thinking about laughter and humor. I love to laugh, and I think we can all agree that laughter makes us feel as […]
The Lost Symbol
In art school, more specifically at the French national art school, I learned that using symbols and visual symbolic language was not a good thing if I wanted to be a good contemporary artist. Good art at the time was cool, made with expensive and impressive materials, such as extremely large full color photographs, preferably […]
Waiting, solitude, and creativity
Book Review: Bringing up Bebe, by Pamela Druckerman The above book is a personal account of raising a young child in France by an American journalist. The book is entertaining and informative, and I especially enjoyed reading it because my son was born in France and spent two years in the creche municipale (public daycare) […]
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