How much of our character is shaped by the time and the era into which we are born? Can we truly think for ourselves without being outcast from the society in which we live or is our only choice to comply with the current times if we want a normal, happy life? There are far [...]
history
In a poor attempt to test my spontaneity yesterday, my clever husband asks me if I am up for going to Japan in 7 days. No plans, no preparation, no idea where we would stay except that this time, we must go to Hakone to climb Mount Fuji – be not impressed; it’s no Everest, [...]
Good heavens, I have seriously fallen out of my reading habit. I used to read one or two books a month and now I find my mind far too preoccupied to read half as frequently. A tad bit ironic how I had to leave the corporate world to come to understand the real meaning of [...]
Tell a story without so many words for a change! There is the newest challenge yet from my spouse. An exercise in brevity and a tall order to my devotion about writing my epic blog posts but variety is the spice of life and so I am up for the challenge. Thomas Jefferson once said: [...]
The travel fever is upon me again. It is a fever that insists on recurring despite my best intentions to starve it and it seems to be in full swing this summer. We all travel for deeply personal reasons, and I am generally one to love the sights and sounds and all the history and [...]
Finally, I broke the sweet spell of Anna Karenina! Not counting the wonderful short read of Alice in Wonderland on my iPhone, I managed to finish a respectable book following Tolstoy: Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol”. Truth be told, I pre-ordered my copy last September (can you tell how I felt about The DaVinci Code, [...]
I fantasize about living in Florence(Firenze) in the 15th century Renaissance period in Italy. I try to imagine walking, observing and absorbing the explosion of Renaissance from a roof top and a street corner. What lofty reverie to witness the brilliant hands of Michelangelo sculpting and Leonardo da Vinci painting timeless masterpieces. How would you [...]
“A Prayer for Owen Meany” by John Irving is an uncommon story. It is a compelling read but not an easy one. The writing evokes so much anxiety, sadness, pleasure, frustration, and laughter throughout but most of all, you read with unquenchable curiosity about the character whose name bears the title of the book, a [...]
Reading Anna Karenina has been so overwhelming and gratifying that I chose to walk away from it for a short while. I decided to take time to digest the scope, the breadth, the depth in this masterpiece of a novel. It is of course an overly ambitious task to ever digest it all. This is [...]
Aside from a handful of reading assignments in high school and a few beloved thick classics which slipped through, I turned my back to literature and the classics for the sake of science, engineering, and a career in technology. “How on earth would English Literature or any other classic help me toward excelling in grad [...]
“I am sure that if I sat in a quiet place, away from the palace and the bustle of the court, I could remember scenes from my childhood much earlier than six years old.” – Prologue to “The Heretic Queen” I wish there were still a thousand more pages to read but alas I have [...]
The bleak of winter can be a heavy burden on the soul. The sunless skies, the freezing rain, the brutal wind, the scenery of naked trees stripped of all life until the warmer seasons. However do we make it to spring year after year without losing heart? For me, it is taking refuge in the [...]
The most magnificent films of our time would be hard pressed in creating the visual images Michelle Moran stirs up with her powerful words, from a history that existed over three thousand years ago, a kingdom that ruled in the heart of Egypt in an unstable period, and a queen that was so beautiful and [...]
If I had to do it all over again, I would….? When you ask yourself that question casually, what is the answer? In some situations, we cannot change the past and the opportunity has passed. In others however, we may be able to set a new course. A few years ago I realized one of [...]
Sometimes we put off some of the most obvious things on our bucket list for an unusually long time. We cannot explain it beyond the excuse that we just haven’t come around to doing them. Over 8 years ago, in a small Mexican restaurant that has since shut down, Argentine tango found me. I say [...]
