Shine, perishing Republic — “Life is good, be it Stubbornly long or suddenly A mortal splendor: meteors are not needed less Than mountains: shine, perishing republic.” - Robinson Jeffers, Shine Perishing Republic (1925) September makes the leaves rattle Even here in my Mediterrania, the heart of the heat still raw and red under still-Summer’s iron dome. We are all…

Bob Dylan, Christopher Hitchens, and a windy day at the beach. — In each thing there is an insinuation of death. Stillness, silence, serenity are all apprenticeships. — Federico Garcia Lorca I probably seem heartbroken To my still-new French neighbors, I must cut a forlorn figure. In the still-warm autumn wind, I stroll desolate beaches by myself, head down, eyes tight against the wind. …

Even if you don’t have to wallow in it — Nothing is easier than closing your eyes Nothing is easier than looking away. It’s never been easier to distract ourselves with a thousand blinking things. Or to live in electronic echo chambers that tell us only what we want to hear. Even the best life on earth has its share of problems. There’s no need to go…

Murder, massacres, and the meandering path of time — The murder didn’t happen here It was in St Etienne du Rouvray where teenage terrorists cut a priest’s throat. It’s a long way from there to here, long enough for the rolling green fields of northern France to give way to the wild wind and fierce sun of the South. But in Beziers, the glorious…

Without emotion, what’s the point? — Nothing scares me like the void The Wasteland. Not the void that existence depends on, the vast and sprawling emptiness between atoms that fill the heart of everyone you love. That’s the same emptiness in the dark reaches of space where the stars are born. That’s nothing to be afraid of. What scares me is to…

Sometimes, a monster is exactly what you need to be — “I was gentle as I was able and that’s the last we’ll fucking speak of it.” - Al Swerengen, Deadwood I knew it would come to this Sooner or later, it always does. I saw my wife’s face through the glass. I was in the middle of writing an article, a different article. I came downstairs to…

Ruins and ghosts on the Costa Brava — The fighting started here Hard to believe now, as the car winds its way through fields mounded with haystacks along glass-smooth roads that wobble and blur in the heat. But the Roman conquest of Spain started here. It began as a war against Carthage, and ended with the entire Iberian Peninsula brought to heel…

A flight home with Dante and Homer — You don’t want to sit next to me on the plane I’m not the worst possible neighbor. I’m quiet. I’m considerate. I won’t steal your space. I hope I don’t smell. But even my not-especially-huge physical frame sits uneasily in the cramped quarters of a budget airline. I stick to the space I pay for, but I fill every square inch…