Doctors and patients: the body politic. Read More

Thomas Wolfe wrote You Can’t Go Home Again. What are the frustrations if you try? Read More

  Solitude liberated me from isolation and mediocrity. For me, isolation results from a feeling of imprisonment.  I have felt physically isolated in a crowd, at a bar, in a faculty meeting or even in the exercise gym where I am the weakest and slowest. For me, solitude is self-chosen: a personal path to exploring… Read More

A snaky escape from forbidden sites in old Taipei. Read More

One can either greet the dawn or dread it. Read More

Free Spirits in Love Read More

The summer of 1961, the place—the Federal Justice Building in Connecticut, the courtroom for hearings before the Selective Service hearing officer, me. By refusing to accept the legitimacy of the draft, I received a federal order to appear before a judge who would accept my refusal or punish me with a two-year prison sentence for… Read More

One of my favorite walking activities involves shutting my eyes for as long as I can.  I choose sidewalks with grass on both sides, or smooth trails that are straight with no stones or potholes.  The experience of temporary blindness allows me to enter the environment with no focus, no distractions except for the wind… Read More

This was the command from my mother when I was in elementary school. The assignment in class was to speak about our family background. The kids awkwardly told stories about the origins of their grandparents in Ohio or somewhere in California, and then moved to their home in North Hollywood. Their stories were antiseptic, hagiographic,… Read More

The struggle to teach traditionally vs. the struggle to teach with a different pedagogy Read More