I am a judge for the Independent Book Publishers Association’s Benjamin Franklin Awards. Perhaps surprisingly, this work predates my years in book publishing and extends back to, I think, 2002. It’s hard to date it precisely, because it began so long ago that I had an entirely different and now defunct email address. The IBPA…
These weekend wintry early mornings in which at times I’m feeling a little drawn—hardly inclined to roll out of bed, bundle up, and get out into the forest and nature—are probably the most necessary times to get up and walk through the woods. I know that, and I’m skeptical I would still have the discipline…
Round the Corner I never really had a crush on her. I always wanted to so pretty and friendly the smile quieting round the corner the testing casual mention of Christ one insincere laugh and I short in dress shoes talk too fast look too hard and what exactly do I do and what’s this…
One One of the best experiences of my life was four decades ago at summer camp, Camp Killooleet, in Hancock, Vermont. I went for eight weeks each summer for five years. It was a magical place and time and the favorite part of my childhood. I cherish that camp and those people and those years,…
I define a stretched presidency as lasting a minimum of eight years and including a presidency of the person elected plus potentially the consecutive presidency of her or his (it has always been his thus far) vice president. The original president wins re-election and/or the vice president of the president wins a consecutive term when the…
I’ve been thinking a lot about joy lately, and especially about how the same experience or circumstance or day or week or year of your life, and perhaps the entirety of your life, can seem joyful or joyless depending on vision and context. All the things we all talk about, maybe too often, come into play:…
I am 47 years old. I turn 48 late this month. I haven’t been someone who has ever given too much weight to birthdays or the passing of the years. But this year my impending birthday is hitting me some. I’ve really not thought too much about age until very recently, but at some time…
I have been a poor blogger lately — “poor Ray,” a friend recently said — posting hardly at all. Today is when I begin to make it up to you. On my former static site, I had several complete interviews with mind/body/spirit teachers posted. They were heavily indexed, extremely prominent under any reasonable search architecture…
Memorial Day weekend 2015: I keep seeing signs in the community and posts in the social media community thanking those who died in military service to keep us free. And I keep wondering: Which was the last war fought that was actually necessary to preserve American freedom? Not all wars are, clearly. I’m not saying…
My birthday is tomorrow. This morning I was chatting on an app about it with a friend in India. It struck me as I typed that last sentence that it’s kind of remarkable that it’s now unremarkable how I in the United States have someone I consider a friend in India whom I’ve never met and…
