For me, it’s important to understand how my friends evaluate food just as it’s important to understand how to interpret Yelp or other popular restaurant rating systems in order to gather the desired information. I lunched recently in Paris’s Latin Quarter with friends with whom I periodically dine out. They had just returned from Sicily,… Continue reading Recommendations
Tag: trust
Americans Abroad
Most Americans are descendants of individuals who left their homelands due to discrimination, famine, greed, poverty, war, or (in the case of many with Irish and African roots) colonial dispossession or enslavement. Perhaps the restless longing for a homeland and community—a reassuring sense of rootedness—is what shapes the American character?
Wayward Youth
In eleventh grade, I experienced at first hand my first adult incidence of undeserved compassion and it changed my life…
Local Food
You know those experiences that occur so unexpectedly, ones you couldn’t have envisioned when you woke up that—or any other—morning, ever? Experiences so wonderful that they wrest you from your normal state of mind, regardless of how mindful it might be? Experiences that remind you of how infinitely varied the world seems, despite its perilously… Continue reading Local Food
Grateful Progeny
My father always kept me engaged and entertained. Whether it entailed planting flowers in the garden, spending Saturday afternoons sitting cross-legged on the floor of the public library…
Service Provider
Piggyback rides constitute the kind of service I enjoy providing – one that brings joy to all parties. In recent decades, the concept of a service provider being primarily and genuinely concerned with the quality of service provided and customer satisfaction seems to have mutated…
Holy Family
In college, I dated a really nice fellow named Chuck…
Midsummer
Swedish artist Anders Zorn (1860-1920) painted Midsummer Dance (1897) at a moment when, throughout Europe, many felt it important to assert and reify one’s geographical identify—local, regional, national…
Gardening
I am happily surprised by the joy I derive from gardening. My father would have observed dryly, ‘I told you so’…
Vision: Motif from Visby
As a staunch Social Democrat from the bourgeoisie, Bergh hoped to dissolve social demographic barriers, establish common ground, and generate empathy among social layers…