Time’s Bittersweet Inevitability

And Gandalf said, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us”. – J.R.R. Tolkien For Christmas I had wanted to give my three wonderful children a gift that only I could give them – my memories of their childhood. For years, I have safeguarded two videotapes of …

2020 Requiem

The year is coming to a close in a few hours for me. This has been the roughest year for billions of people. So many people have lost people they love, as have I. But as the year ends, hope is on the horizon. The coming of a new year brings the promise of change. …

Ancient Lunar Calendar

This is an excerpt from an article I wrote when I was managing editor of a monthly magazine in Hangzhou, China. It was the year 4705-4706 – Earth Rat year. Now twelve years later it is the year 4717- 4718 Metal Rat. The Rat Year begins the 12-year cycle. Let me just say tactfully that …

A Beginning: Happy New Year

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language; / And next year’s words await another voice; / And to make an end is to make a beginning. – TS Eliot The new decade is sprouting around the world, following the slowly rolling arc of midnight. The year ends hour by hour, as the sparkling …