We’re all someone’s supporting characters
Someone once said that language is a dusty, warped window-pane. The clear light of our thoughts is twisted. We can never communicate perfectly. I jest and you bleed. You reconcile and I am offended. If the human race ever dies, our gravestone will read, Why couldn’t they just listen to each other?
I stood, slightly bewildered, on the docks. It’s impossible not to be, when you’re a foreigner. Which I am. The Balkans are deep. Their history, their culture, their secrets. Their anceint feuds. So deep that you could swim forever, always seeking something elusive, looking for the secret soul that is always just out of reach. […]
After I came back from Macedonia I started having nightmares. I cannot completely describe them; but they always began in a familiar place, and ended in a twisted half-reality, and never could I spot exactly when it changed. The worst of it was seeing it flicker into real life. We were on the camping trip, […]
I was out walking this morning in Ohrid, in the old part of the city by the lake. And when I say old I mean old – people have been living around there since about 300 BC. Walking in the oldest parts of the city can be tiring – countless centuries ago, Macedonians fearing attack […]
The Air and Space Museum was a surreal landscape. Actually, to most people it probably wasn’t. But I was looking at it through not one filter, but two, both of which, by themselves, induced a state of subnormality, but together formed the monochrome superspace which spun dreamy patterns for me. You see, photographers – well, […]
I have learned. I have learned, among other things that I am, “Lud, ama positivno lud.” I have also learned that if you don’t sleep, you can’t get hung over; and I have learned how to stand still. Orce said, “Simon, ti ke bides sniperist. Ke te pratat u voyska ta pukas peperutki.”
Guildenstern is inexplicable. He has no past and is defined by it. Guildenstern is two of a kind.
This morning, we are going into Washington to visit the Capitol building, and, presumably because of this, we have all been reminded to dress nicely; in this case, the word ‘nicely’ instead of meaning ‘In a manner which is nice’, means, ‘Wear a suit.’ On the surface, this seems like a reasonable request. But let […]
I have been thinking, for a long time now, about the state of our schools, the state of our educational system, and what this means for the future of our nation and of our democracy. Now, for the first time, I have began to consider how it will affect journalism. At the present time, public […]
In the entrance hall of the Capitol right now. We have to wait a half-hour for our tour, so, there being no benches or other comfort-facilitating devices available, some of us decided to sit against the wall. After about five minutes, a security guard walked past and told us, “You can’t sit down, gotta stand […]