Essays/Op
Concert to Hail Spring Break
Below is the text of my introduction to a concert I gave at Bishop’s March 4, 2013. – Speaking begins 8:00, and playing begins 10:50. Concert ends at 23:12: March 4th Concert – Initially, I had grand plans to attach some lofty explanation and extramusical set of ideas to what I was to play. But as we’ve discussed in... »
Here’s [to] Hopin’
The Bishop’s School recently celebrated a “Week of Hope” to grant students and staff a time to pause and take stock of the things that “matter” and make them (us) happy. I played three concerts to convey the message of hope as I see, hear, and define it, and I wrote this essay to... »
Comprobante de una Vida Real (Traducido por Gloria Stokol)
To read the original story “Proof of Life” in English, click here. Aqui esta el articulo original en ingles. Reportaje hecho durante los meses de octubre a noviembre del 2008, escrito en noviembe del 2008. Traducido por Gloria V Nijensohn Stokol, octubre 2012. *Joanna no es su nombre verdadero Si pulsara en cada una de sus fotos... »
Words Fail us, but Maybe That’s not Such a bad Thing
You could say words ultimately fail us. They are an inaccurate art that could never fully encapsulate the truth of an idea, image, or situation. Their tragedy is that in their best incarnations, they are simply approximations. But I guess after everything’s done (if not necessarily “said-and-done”), it’s better to be left with an... »
A Toast for my Sister’s Wedding
Good evening, my name is Debbie, and I’m Margot’s sister. Of the 10,297 or so days I’ve known Marg—and I really should be careful with my math in deference to Joel—I don’t think more than one has passed during which she and I weren’t in touch in some way. That’s always felt like a priority,... »
Existential Crises Display Your Humanity
I have to say I believe that if you have not had some form of an Existential Crisis during your adult life or formative years, you are not Human. Whether you believe in God or Darwinian Evolution or some variant of both or neither, you will likely agree that what separate Us–human beings–from the... »
Are we not Prisms?
I used to think that who you are stayed the same no matter what happened to you–that the core of you, your essence, the stuff that gave you your identity, was immutable and that no matter what you experienced, you were as a circle around another circle on a tree ring, nothing greater. It... »
A Manifesto for Tonight–and not Just Tonight
I will let my imagination soar, rather than having it sink into an abyss of discontentment. I will no longer live in the past but will incorporate it lovingly into my present and its future. I release myself from stress and anxiety. I purge myself of hate, malice, and intolerance. I liberate myself from... »
Rain Man
My sister calls me “Rain Man” because I have an uncanny ability to remember people’s birthdays. It’s been that way for years. And while I was never bad at math, per se, I was never a luminary, either. So it’s not like I have some divine knack with numbers; I don’t (though admit to... »
On All-Consuming, but then Fleeting, Routines
On Fleeting Routines …That is what often happens. You go into an experience, live it to its fullest, immerse yourself in it until you’re almost tired of it but at the same time can little imagine any other reality but the one you’re in. You finish it, overwhelmed, exhausted, and satisfied. For awhile, nothing else... »