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I thought visitors to Ruminations…might enjoy some shots of the day at theJFK Center PEN/Hemingway Awards: Yes, that’s the back of Colm Toíbín’s head. He gave an endearing Keynote on Hemingway’s “unsaid.” Cathy Chung (author of Forgotten Country) an

This weekend, I’m off to receive my PEN/Hemingway nod at the JFK Presidential Library in Boston. It’s a public ceremony, so come by and say hi if you’re in Boston. I say “nod” for a reason. That’s all Catherine Chung (Forgotten Country) and I – the

Last week I wrote about Robespierre, The Incorruptible (Ruminations…01.03.12). This week, it’s Me, The Unsociable. Riding the Single Chair…sounds like it could be either a Zen kōan or something from Vātsyāyana’s Kama Sutra, don’t you think? I do. But here

A doff of the cap to E.O. Wilson who’s book Consilience made a real impression a few years back…a respectful but negative one. In As It Is On Earth, Dean Alvah Frankel takes a page from that book. Frankel turns back to Miryam, his smile icy. “Consilience, young lady, what we cal

A number of years ago, I wrote a short story called The Life of Birds.** In the story, a young somewhat adrift fellow named Ben oversees a small nature sanctuary. While leading a group of bird watchers through the forest, he points out a brightly colored orange and black oriole in the

Something for election seasons…or whenever – a favorite bit from The Moviegoer: “Whenever I feel bad, I go to the library and read controversial periodicals. Though I do not know whether I am a liberal or a conservative, I am nevertheless enlivened by the hatred which one bears

Last week, I wrote about seeing with instruments. That got me wondering again about what science shares with religion. Well,…”Jackson Pollock on the Mount” – the graying paint-spattered priest in As It Is On Earth – wonders as well. Sermonizing on the rationale

Two of my favorite writers on their garden benches, a tree over each of their left shoulder, and their heads tilted slightly rightward…as if they share one of As It Is On Earth‘s character’s poignant tendency “to see the slant of things better that way.” In AIIOE, I

Firstly, a shout out: to Mark Mathew Braunstein whose photograph of Mamacoke Island graces the cover of As It Is On Earth, and to Andy Carpenter who found the photo, and then designed it into AIIOE’s lovely book jacket. Mamacoke Island plays a big role in the story. Its more than a pl

In his essay, The Origin of the Work of Art, the philosopher Martin Heidegger made an important distinction between the Earth and the World. Roughly, the “Earth” is the biotic entity that precedes humanity, and the “World” is what humans make of the earth when