Á mes amis en France, merci! On Sunday the 12th of October something seismic happened. These things do happen from time to time, but you have to look for them. Sometimes they are immediately apparent; sometimes, upon reflection, we can see that a particular event was an inflection point. Back during President Trump’s first presidential campaign… (the one...
Dim sunlight cut through the wooden blinds and struck the bar like muted blades. The cycling wicker fans overhead were a mild nuisance, as were the disturbed fake palm fronds that reached towards the 20-foot-high ceiling. As I focused on the differences in lightness and darkness on the damp bar, I found myself becoming distracted...
I could feel the blazing fire from the fireplace warming me. Napoleon faced backwards on his horse as he pointed in the direction of the Alps compelling his men to follow him. The gilded gold frame that surrounded him seemed somewhat cleaner, sharper. The oil painting, itself, I had seen hundreds of times seemed richer...
My heart lies heavy. As most of you know, I am Jewish. I am not entirely sure what that means, frankly. Carolyn, my older daughter, says we are Jew “ish”… I heard the term “flexidox” recently. I am not sure if it is a religion, a culture or, perhaps, a blending of the two. I don’t...
I had been listening to Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist from Stanford, talk about how music creates a dopamine response in the human brain that helps facilitate physical movement. It was interesting, but as I listened to the muffled sounds of Latin jazz digitally altered to evoke an old-time AM radio sound, I doubted his theory. ...
“What can you do right this moment?” I looked up at Gabriel; he was looking at me with that intense look he seemed to always have. His question was honest and poignant. He knew the answer, and he knew that I knew the answer, but he wanted me to verbalize it. “Proselytize?” He wrinkled his face in a...
In the introductory pages of John le Carré’s, The Night Manager, a lawyer is about to be executed. He is trying to process the enormity and finality of the moment and becomes fixated on the instrument of his demise, specifically the gun being pointed at him. He does not reflect on the circumstances that led him to...
Audacity. That was the only word I could muster as I stood in front of the crackling fireplace and stared into the gilded framed picture of Napoleon crossing the Alps that hung over the mantle. There he was… bold, dignified, even majestic, astride his white horse and pointing to a summit, while looking back at...
People often ask me what inspires me to write on a certain subject. Sometimes it is pure interest on my part, sometimes it is prodding by my wife, oftentimes it is driven by current events. Occasionally I receive inspiration from a little nugget of knowledge I was not expecting. Such is the case with this one....
Enough of politics… This season has created division, disparagement, and indigestion. For today’s blog, let’s talk about something noncontroversial: religion. A couple of disclaimers just to know where I am coming from: Some intellectuals detest religion. They feel it is medieval, codified superstition, coercive and, in the final analysis, just kinda silly. Other intellectuals are extremely dismissive...
