In August 2023, we moved one of our twin daughters to Boulder, Colorado for grad school. I wrote the following passage for BeyondtheNest upon our return: I always marvel at how travel makes strangers so much more open to conversations. Maybe it has to do with the fact that they'll probably never seen each other again, …
Preserved for Posterity
My daughters live in Stockholm, Sweden and Boulder, Colorado now. We generally talk once or twice a week via phone or video chat. I often think about earlier times in history when there were no long-distance options beyond letters. Throughout much of history, even letters would have been few and far between due to the cost …
Lost Sounds
When I bought tickets to the film 32 Sounds, I could not imagine how one could create “an immersive documentary” about sound, but I came out agreeing with Rolling Stone reviewer David Fear who wrote “It’s the greatest documentary you’ve ever heard.” One aspect of the film that continues to haunt me is his concept of “lost sound.” He uses …
For Love of Language
For as long as I remember, I have loved words. At five years old, I, peered over my parents’ shoulders from the back seat of our pink Chevy station wagon, and excited to see a word I recognized, I practically shouted, “Stop!” That sign says Stop!”As an afterthought, I added, “I don’t know what I …
Travel Tribulations
Years ago, I heard an anecdote about a man who walked up to an airline check-in desk and asked the clerk to send one bag to Ft. Myers, one to Baltimore Washington International, and one to Rochester. The clerk was scandalized. “Sir, we can’t do that!” “Why not? You did it last time.” When I …
Living: It’s Not a Competition, It’s a Mission
I recently watched the 2022 film Living on Netflix. It’s probably the zenith roll of Bill Nighy’s career. He portrays a Public Works bureaucrat, in the most regimented of jobs, who learns he has between 6 and 9 months to live. It is beautiful, and poignant, and irrepressibly sad. It is also incredibly thought provoking. Up until …
Continue reading Living: It’s Not a Competition, It’s a Mission
Out on a Limb 