being not doing

Today is the five year anniversary of when we moved to DC. I can tell you exactly where I was at this time five years ago: on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. A few hours from now, I was pulling into a motel outside of Hagerstown, an hour or so away from DC. But […]

I was disappointed by The Double Bind, by Chris Bohjalian. I have been awed by the strength of several of his past novels — Midwives, of course, but also Trans-Sister Radio and Buffalo Soldier — but I don’t find the quality of the stories to be consistent. I’m sure that’s more a reflection […]

I picked up The Patron Saint of Liars, by Ann Patchett, at the library, as I’d enjoyed Bel Canto and not previously read any of her other stuff. I was a bit disappointed, truthfully. I know it’s a debut novel, and I tried to give it the tender consideration that such a thing […]

These past few days, I’ve been touched in many ways by what’s happened at Virginia Tech. I keep thinking about my years in college classrooms, as a student and as a professor. The image of a 76 year old man blocking entry to his classroom stays with me, and I try not to […]

Yesterday I returned to the pond for the first time in a couple of weeks. In a stroke of luck, I timed my arrival to coincide with the presence of a single Caspian Tern, a bird I’d never seen before. Although I don’t always, this time I had my binoculars and Peterson’s with […]

I had no idea what to expect from Cloud Atlas before I started reading it, and that’s the way I recommend experiencing the book. It’s a novel with striking similarities to Never Let Me Go, one of which is the pleasure of letting it unfold as it will, with no knowledge going into the […]

This week we saw the Washington National Opera’s performance of Wagner’s Die Walküre at the Kennedy Center. Or, I should say, we saw most of the production. Despite our best efforts, Wagner defeated us.
Last year, we saw our first Wagner production, Parsifal performed by the Kirov Opera Company, also at the […]

In general, I try to take the ‘live and let live’ approach to insects outside (mosquitoes being the obvious exception). Eastern tent caterpillars really creep me out, though. I don’t like the way they fall from the trees; even if they don’t fall on me, they make a disturbing plopping sound when they […]

The next step in my art-making plan is to learn how to use the oil paints that my grandfather gave me 18 months ago. After nearly forty years in their house, my grandparents moved into an apartment, and my grandfather passed along his easel, paints, and brushes to me. Since I haven’t had […]