Letter from Home | A collection of essays originally written for Flagstaff Live!

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Eyes on Burma; A portrait of a people and their country

Eyes on Burma; A portrait of a people and their country

Posted by on Apr 8, 2021

In the late 1990s I traveled with a friend to what was then called Burma, and is now called Myanmar. We never intended to go to Burma; our plan was to explore Thailand, and perhaps move on to India after that. We even obtained visas for Egypt in case we still had itchy feet. I had never been to Asia, and in my journal I described Bangkok, where we landed,...

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Let me tell you; The stormy birth of story

Let me tell you; The stormy birth of story

Posted by on Mar 4, 2021

Who among us has not been comforted by the words, Let me tell you a story? In my family it was my father who held the talking stick. He was not only a brilliant exaggerator, but he and his three brothers learned the gift of Blarney from their mother who learned it from her Irish grandfather who, we were told, did a short shift as the mayor of New York...

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The Open Door of the Night Shift; Belongness, and the art of being home

The Open Door of the Night Shift; Belongness, and the art of being home

Posted by on Dec 10, 2020

Like many of us in our fair city, I came here from somewhere else. Or as we say in New England, I’m from away. I’m not actually from New England, though it wasn’t until recently I learned New York City was not part of New England. I don’t honestly know what it’s part of. New Yorkers don’t worry about things like that. Friends are initially astonished when...

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The Shoes of a Citizen; Creating connections in a divisive time

The Shoes of a Citizen; Creating connections in a divisive time

Posted by on Oct 29, 2020

I first met Carmen twenty years ago when she lived on the corner of Third and Rose in a purple mobile home. We squeezed in at the kitchen table to study English while her three young kids came and went, hungry or cranky, needing this and that. I was a lousy English teacher, but despite my shortcomings, time did the work. We met at her kitchen table for ten...

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