Category Archives: Autobiography

Remembering Gloria Vanderbilt

“My mother comes from a vanished world, a place and a time that no longer exist. I have always thought of her as a visitor stranded here; an emissary from a distant star that burned out long ago.” Anderson Cooper Today, June 17, 2019, Gloria Vanderbilt left this world after 95 years.  Extraordinary, determined andContinue reading “Remembering Gloria Vanderbilt”

Living with a Wild God

“Try inserting an account of a mystical experience into a conversation, and you’ll likely get the same response as you would if you confided that you had been the victim of an alien abduction,” Barbara Ehrenreich, Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever’s Search for the Truth about Everything The first time I met BarbaraContinue reading “Living with a Wild God”

The Rainbow Comes & Goes

“My mother comes from a vanished world, a place and a time that no longer exist. I have always thought of her as a visitor stranded here; an emissary from a distant star that burned out long ago.” Anderson Cooper This is not my usual reading choice.  I confess the title caught my attention; rainbowsContinue reading “The Rainbow Comes & Goes”

Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens

“About a year ago, I was informed by a doctor that I might have as little as another year to live.  In consequence, some of these articles were written with the full consciousness that they might be my very last.” Christopher Hitchens January 2011, I walked with Christopher Hitchens as he told me his lifeContinue reading “Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens”

Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War

You can tell people of the need to struggle, but when the powerless start to see that they really can make a difference, nothing can quench the fire.”  Leymah Gbowee, Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War The first time I heard Leymah Gbowee (Winner of the 2011 NobelContinue reading “Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War”

Résistance

Palais de Chaillot, Paris, 7 June 1940 “Rumours are flying, all flatly contradictory, but it seems clear that the Germans are advancing on all fronts. It’s only a matter of advanced units of motorized troops – naturally – but however they try to explain it away in the newspapers and on the radio, I’m convincedContinue reading “Résistance”

Opinion | Greg Mortenson — after the tea has been spilled | Seattle Times Newspaper

Opinion | Greg Mortenson — after the tea has been spilled | Seattle Times Newspaper. The blogs and twitters are frantically trying to put the pieces together! Truth can be complex and ambiguous. In the end, I always look at outcomes, the facts, the realities. The truth is that girls received an education. I hopeContinue reading “Opinion | Greg Mortenson — after the tea has been spilled | Seattle Times Newspaper”