Such a nice photo. A proud father, with his beautiful daughter, on a stunning day in the Pacific NW of the United States. Who would know that this father was about to go through some of the most terrifying minutes of his life? It was five years ago, and thanks to FB it re-circulated as… Read More Some of the most terrifying moments of my life
Sometimes things are too strange to even describe. But I will try. Last week, on a visit with friends to another of the ‘wonders of the Christian world in history’, in this case the 7th century Da Qin Pagoda outside Xi’an in China, we arrived to see a drone hovering around it. I have written… Read More The Stark Contrast of a 7th Century Christian Pagoda and a Drone
Today history is being made in Asia with two important meetings. The first is between the leaders of North and South Korea. Just a few hours ago, Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-in began to meet together at the DMZ (de-militarized zone). The meeting started with Kim walking across the heavily armed border, the first… Read More Two Historic Meetings in Asia Today
Yes, here I am. At one of the wonders of the world. Not just from late 8th century China, but from any century. Last week I stood again in front of the ‘Nestorian Stele’, an over 10 foot tall monument filled with the history of the Church of the East in China from their arrival… Read More A Wonder of the 8th century World
Where History Meets the Future. I love this phrase. It speaks not of a dead, dry past, but a living history that interacts with our present into the future. A history that is important not only because of what it tells us about that past, but what it tells us about what is to come.… Read More Where History Meets the Future
It is sometimes thought that those who change history must be outsiders. People who seem to appear as if from another time, so strange and unearthly that all around them must somehow come under the force-field of their influence. Wrong. At least, wrong to a great degree. For actually while it may be true that… Read More An ‘Integrated Non-conformist’ in History
What does courage look like? One doesn’t need to look beyond the face of Malala Yousafzai, who this last week returned home to the beautiful area of Swat in NW Pakistan. You may remember that in 2012, when she was only 14 and on her way to school, Taleban gunmen stopped her bus and asked… Read More Malala Yousafzai Returns Home
Last week I was sitting in Taipei airport minding my own business, waiting for a flight. Then I looked up, seeing across from me a large box rooted to the floor. Half-dazed with a traveler’s zombie like stare, I focused on the words inscribed: Escape Chute. (There was also Chinese on it, which I couldn’t read. Any… Read More The Escape Chute of the Present Moment
Confinement. A place of limitations, being held back, a lack of freedom. Yet the places of confinement in our lives often yield the greatest creativity. That’s why some of the classics in literature and history have been written in prison. Think of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Letters from a Birmingham Jail, or Nelson Mandela writing a diary and letters… Read More The Confinement that Leads to Writing
I first read this book by the very gifted Annie Dillard in 2003. I had read several of her books at that point, like Holy the Firm, The Living, and her most famous one, Pilgrim of Tinker Creek. But this one on the art of writing deeply challenged me, partly because it was a season in my life when the… Read More The Writing Life
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