Dear Hiroshi, I’ll see you soon in Kochi on Shikoku, southern Japanese main island; most beautiful, least populated, mostly agrarian, putatively “lightly” bombed during WW II. Shikoku, the birthplace of revered 9th Century Shingon Buddhist…
Posts tagged as “essays”
Sunday an hour before kick-off, Niners vs Seattle, I’m on the sideline behind the Seahawk bench. A few players for both teams are on the field, running practice routes, playing soft toss, punting balls high…
Big Dog came by the house on a Friday afternoon, late in the day. Watching his arrival from the front room I could tell by the deliberate walk to the porch and the concern on…
What did people do before the invention of motion pictures to visualize the devastations wrought by natural disasters? From God’s fury on earth manifested in hurricanes and fires to the final cataclysm of the Last…
Graham Greene’s childhood was divided between two loyalties. His father was director of the school of Berkhamsted, located in an old building connected to the house in which Graham lived and in which he had been born through a door upholstered in baize.
Country living requires many things, but one essential is a dog. With plenty of room to roam and the isolation of Anderson Valley during my years — the late 1950s to the late 1980s —…
The Bach family’s fascination with, and seminal contributions to, the flute repertoire orbits around the musical centers of Dresden and Berlin. It was in these capital cities of Saxony and Prussia respectively that Germany’s greatest…
In those long ago days when I was invited to read from my novels in bookstores and libraries, and for college audiences and writers groups, I was frequently asked if I had any helpful advice for people who wanted to become writers and make their livings from writing.