People ask what the Women’s March on Washington was for, anyway, as if not rallying around a single discrete issue is mere silliness. To them, I say: if only there were a single, simple, self-contained issue. Gosh, wouldn’t that be great? Here’s the thing. When trouble advances, women are pretty much always on the front …
Harriet Tubman chuckling in heaven. That’s what I’d like to think as her response to the news that her face will grace the front of our new twenty dollar bill. With no small bit of humorous irony, grace it will. See, in the case of Harriet Tubman, her money was your money and yours and …
Harriet Tubman – Her Money, Your Money, and the $20 Read More »
Who’d have thought that words such as “hot” or “trending” would refer to Harriet Tubman? Yet, there they are. Hers may be the face that boots Hamilton from the ten dollar bill, and her words graced Viola Davis’ historic Emmy speech. Friends knowing how my preoccupation with Harriet Tubman led to writing a screenplay Tell …
Harriet Tubman, Unlikely Patriot and American Icon Read More »
What if we were to extend our notions of neighborhood to the nonhuman natural world? We’re familiar with the courtesies and manners appropriate for our human neighbors (whether or not we accept them). But what about the heron, the salamander, the fox, the speckled trout? I had a wonderful opportunity to meet and hear Wendell …
What should we do with knowledge that undermines a force for good? I attended the Cyrus Cylinder symposium at DC’s Freer Sackler Gallery, the artifact’s first stop on its U.S. tour. It was a sunny Saturday morning, yet the hall was packed, and no one was snoozing. Rightly so, as the presenters are among the …
Ancient Cyrus Cylinder Stirs Modern Passions and Debate Read More »
The Cyrus Cylinder has great potential for Iran-U.S. relations. So I was thinking: wouldn’t it be great if President Obama were to hike on down to the Freer Sackler Gallery, just a few blocks from the White House to take a look? Here’s my letter inviting him to do so. If you like it, feel …
As far as religious paradox goes, the radical vulnerability of God has got to take the cake (or the stollen, the bunuelos, the figgy pudding, the buche de noel, the truchas de navidad…). As I’ve lost my grip on all the other Christmas traditions still dear to me — the weekly advent services leading up; …
How do you manage the challenge of doing work and keeping your head while also dealing with the trials of life? There’s the challenge of managing time, of course, but also: how do you concentrate? And how do you keep positive and productive in the midst? How when faced with frustration, disappointment, and worse does …
A princess betrothed to Nebuchadnezzar travels from her palace in Hamadan to Babylon. True story, and it’s angling to be the beginning of my historical novel. Amytis’ journey, 2500 years ago, from what is modern, northern Iran to what is modern, central Iraq passed through a changing landscape with a dizzying variety of flora and …
If Americans know anything at all about Cyrus II, it’s usually positive. The founder of the Persian Empire earned praise then and now for inaugurating a new way to rule: with respect — respect for differences of religion, respect for the wisdom of individual communities, respect (i.e. fair pay) for honest work… and all this …
