“Renounce and Enjoy”
Mohandas Gandhi used the Bhagavad Gita as his go-to source for dealing with life’s daily problems and issues. A short book of 700 verses, the Gita grounded and inspired Gandhi throughout his life. Like other …
Author: Mark J. Chmiel
A Letter from Israel Shahak
—Israel Shahak performed a vital service for many years with his translations “From the Hebrew Press,” which gave an accurate picture of Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians. A survivor of Bergen-Belsen, he was…
What Kind of University Does SLU Want To Be?
Reading about SLU’s receiving of Rex Sinquefield’s fifty million dollars reminded me of a letter Mev Puleo wrote to then SLU President Biondi 25 years ago … A School/2 After the exhilarating World Youth…
Jew-in-the-Library, Jew-in-the-Streets
Jill Krementz, The Jewish Writer, Henry Holt and Company, 1998 Portraits, bios, occasionally quotations form this coffee table book collection of Jewish writers, poets, novelists, scholars. Wiesel is here, as is his nemesis Hannah Arendt,…
I Was Sitting Outside at 6 North Coffee
I bought tea for my friends Shams and Rumi Another intoxicatingly sunny day 70 degrees They were cutting up the way they always do But they could see in my eyes a request to quit…
Not So Random Entries, Commonplace Moleskine/5
7. Our monkey-minds are like these agitated monsters that are wanting this and collecting that, always grabbing, grabbing, grabbing. The process of cooling out that agitation takes time, and that’s hard for the agitated mind…
Exemplar of Epistolary Ecstasy
Bill Morgan, ed., The Letters of Allen Ginsberg “Recommending Hare Krishna to one and all” 375 It might have taken me 12 hours to read this book line by line, but it’s more important to…
Share the Wealth with Gregory Pass: Notes from My Library
Moving into our house five years ago gave my wife, Jennifer Lowe, and me room to expand our libraries. I have been collecting or accumulating books with some purpose since I was eleven or twelve…
Not So Random Entries, Commonplace Moleskine/4
99. There is a notion of “passing it on,” that simple. One to one. Elder to younger perhaps. That “poetry is news,” that the inspiration for any work you do and the work you do…
Share the Wealth with Linsey Stevens: Iphelia and Editing with the Gift of Feeling
What kind of work would you wake up in a hospital bed eager to do? And how is editing like being a doula? The first question is one I answered back in the fall of…