Ocean

A routine has been established. Not a great one, not during this cold month anyway, but it’s there: after class on Mondays, I take the bus t...

It’s a good thing that my occasional traveling companion is such a sketchy reader of Ocean (like a kid reading a boring book, he concentrat...

It is inevitable that when you get together with a friend who has tracked your life for nearly 30 years, you’ll find yourself reminiscing. I...

Like a child plucked out of a life of hardship and thrown into unknown riches, Ed investigates all that the suite offers. He doesn’t need no...

Outside my office, I listen to the conversation between my colleagues and a visiting scholar from South Africa. The visitor is traumatized b...

I have not biked to work in 2010. I cannot take the cold, the sudden ice patch, the clumsiness of pedaling in many layers of wraps. But with...

A student finds a quiet corner in the hallway. Sunlight is streaming in but I doubt he notices. Computer, a coffee, music. Effective barrier...

Hum it to yourself as you read. (It’s from Dr. Zhivago, at the point where he reaches his sweetie'e place, in the dead of a Siberian win...

One good side to a busy schedule is that once you’ve stepped on the treadmill of the day, you don’t have to think about what’s next. And so ...

A wet, foggy January Saturday. Hand picked by me for a brief excursion. Just outside city limits, to a place that is silent and beautiful. S...

An email landed in my inbox today. If you travel and if you make many of your arrangements through the Internet, you will get these occasion...

I’m in a rush. I shove books, marked by pencils sticking out of them into my backpack. I stab myself by accident with a fine point. Maybe th...

Here’s the thing: work has to take precedence over all else in the next 9 weeks. It’s not only a priority, it is the top priority. My Europe...

She tells me that once, I called her an asshole. I think back. Maybe. Don’t be such an asshole! An uncontrolled moment. She can needle me w...

Well it’s about time! Morning mist burns away, the skies clear, my oh my, it is one gorgeous day! Ed, we need to get out and go! Where to? N...

I am pretty adept at recognizing when something is killing me (my work habits right now) even as I am less adept at understanding how best t...

Mood dictates color preference. Such an obvious thing, so easily forgotten. In Mexico, aqua blues last week were a delight. Then, when we we...

There have been times when I have worried that I am without skills. I mean the kind of skills that allow you to build houses and make wheels...