The Rise and Fall of a Boundary Builder — If the Roman Emperor Hadrian were alive today, I wonder what he might have to say about the tumbled down remains of the 2nd century border wall in modern-day England that bears his name. Would he stand by his long-ago decision to send thousands of his legionnaires to the northern…

Footslog to freedom along Hadrian’s Wall — For five days in early October my pal Lynn and I footslogged along the Hadrian’s Wall path in northern England, following the archeological remains of the Roman Empire’s greatest ever structure. …

September 24th, 2022 (day before departure) To take or not to take, that is the question. Stretched out before me is more rain gear than I ever imagined owning. Add to that socks and thermal layers of all manner — and blister protection, in packages and tubes enough to defend…

Hard Times and Hitting a Wall — I’ve hit a wall — not a real wall but an imagined one in the form of a computer screen capable of sucking up my soul, along with all my words. A respected agent I recently pitched encouraged me to “rework” the beginning pages of What Birds Know, which I…

High tide in Oceanside — The Gin and Tonic in my hand is sweating as am I. It’s after 5:00 p.m. and the sun is still blazing here in Oceanside, California, where I am vacationing with the family. The land of Top Gun and Tom Cruise, this is where the Preston family hangs for two…

Beginning Over Behind the Ballroom Wall — In front of Hussein Hamad stands the hotel wall that separates him from the well-heeled diners whose plates he cleans without recognition. Barely 21, Hussein is a Lebanese immigrant newly arrived in Houston. There on a student visa, he is taking English classes at the nearby university while holding down…

Stone Time in Lisbon — In the 1980’s, the British punk band The Clash hit it big in the United States with a song called “Rock the Casbah.” A big fan of The Clash, I remember speeding down the 101 Highway with my friend Robin on my first-ever parent-free road trip. We were headed to…

Composite Córdoba: Walled In, Walled Out It’s the Saturday of Semana Santa-Holy Week-in the Spanish city of Córdoba. The place is packed with religious revelers here to witness the processions of the Catholic brotherhoods known locally as the estacion de penitencia. These holy cavalcades occur all over Spain in the week leading up to Easter. I…

Out in the Open The Rock Walls That Sheltered a Movement It was a fluke that I wound up at Christopher Street in front of the Stonewall Inn. I was headed to another wall on Great Jones Alley a few blocks away when my GPS redirected me to the NYC landmark. From the street, the Stonewall Inn isn’t much to look…