She likes books…

Books are almost as important as food to me. Certainly more important than clothing. After the basic necessities of shelter and warmth, food and drink, books come next. At this point in my life, I have thousands of books in my house. They are like inanimate friends. I find it close to miraculous that a [...]

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Brideshead Ever-Revisited

I’m reading Brideshead Revisited again, and seeing something different. When I first read in in 1981, I was removed from the Philippines for three years. It was not a long time at all. Today, thirty-one years later, I am struck with Charles Ryder’s emotions on revisiting Brideshead during the war. All the grandeur was [...]

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Homesick

The only cure for homesickness is going home. So that’s where I am going as soon as I can. I’m going home to the Philippines.
I was looking at pictures of the family ruins today. I thought about my daughter’s trip to Honduras where she went to a place called “Copan de Ruinas”. My memories lie [...]

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The days tumble by

Friday took me by surprise. I thought it was Thursday. Here we are at day’s end, with two children recuperating from the flu. When the kids are sick, that is the only reality that rules the day.
We all watched Tony Bourdain’s episode on the Philippines. It was very nostalgic for me, as I have been [...]

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A Birthday

My oldest daughter came home for the weekend, first at the request of her youngest siblings. We went into Boston in the middle of the night to get her from the bus station. We had a great party. A great party. A party full of people from the near past and the stretched and elastic [...]

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