Almost 36 years ago, National Geographic magazine published an issue with Steve McCurry’s photo of a young Afghan woman on the cover. Her intense green eyes were so unexpected, and her expression so loaded with hard-to-read emotion, that the photograph has become iconic. Just google “afghan girl” and there she is, after all this time. […]
13
Jan
Jan
A few nights ago, Linda Ligon, Deborah Chandler—who’s visiting from her home in Guatemala—and I found our way to the Indigenous Film and Arts Festival in Denver. The January feature was Weaving Worlds, a 2007 documentary by Navajo filmmaker Bennie Klain. Weaving Worlds records the lives of several Navajo weavers and their struggles to maintain […]
18
Nov
Nov
Sometimes you just have to laugh. Sometimes you leave all thoughts of “political correctness,” of propriety, of good manners behind and just let it bubble up. Laughter is universal. People laugh at themselves, their foibles, each other, their fate, the universe. Take this traditional Quechua riddle recorded in Weaving in the Peruvian Highlands: Dreaming Patterns, […]
16
Sep
Sep
I’ve been reading a terrific book called I Contain Multitudes about microbes and their pervasive role in all of creation, not to mention my own gut. So a recent story in the New York Times immediately caught my eye: “Could Ancient Remedies Hold the Answer to the Looming Antibiotic Crisis?” As I dug into the story, […]
13
Jun
Jun
I’m reading a book that I love so much I can hardly put it down: Euphoria, by Lily King. It’s a work of fiction based loosely on the lives of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, written so richly that you feel the lush beauty and terror of the jungles of New Guinea and its denizens deep […]
30
May
May
When I heard that Faces of Tradition was a finalist for a Benjamin Franklin award, I thought “Well, that is nice.” Then I thought, “Maybe I should go to the ceremony in New York in case the book wins the gold.” Then I thought, “Nah.” I love New York, but I don’t much love ceremonies. […]
