We can’t know everything. But we can yearn to learn more. I recently learned of Mr. Lewis Howard Latimer—an inventor, writer, and leader. Born in Massachusetts in 1848, he was the youngest son of slaves who escaped from Norfolk, Virginia, near my hometown. His family decided to split up and scatter to protect itself from…
For me, hiking has always been a form of meditation in motion. Breathing in the fresh air, stretching my legs, decompressing my thoughts, letting go of stress, taking in the gifts of nature. On a hike back in 2018 in the Chautauqua Park, outside of Boulder, Colorado, I enjoyed all of these benefits of my…
I read The Diary of Anne Frank when I was twelve. I was deeply impacted by the personal story of an incomprehensible situation and ultimately, her tragic end. At the time, I slept in a room over the garage in my home, listening to records by Captain and Tennille, reading books like “Are you there,…
In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day this year, I am re-reading King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” I’m haunted by his words. Most of us came to admire King for his oratory skills. But King’s superpower was his wordcraft, wielding prose as a sword or a torch or a paintbrush, rendering a better…
I am fascinated by isolated places and the people who call those places home. What draws them there? And what makes them stay? One remote island I visited recently has a literary connection. Daufuskie Island, South Carolina, is the actual setting of Pat Conroy’s 1972 memoir The Water is Wide (in which the island is…
One of the most satisfying benefits of traveling is learning the local lore and history of a place and its people. On a recent trip to South Carolina, I stumbled upon the Robert Smalls house and learned of his amazing life. The discovery of this history is exhilarating even as its obscurity is troubling. My…
