Chicken Dinner
My dad left Germany in 1927 to come to the United States. His father had already arrived here, and was working as a bricklayer. He told my dad there were many jobs for carpenters and that he really should come to America. So my dad left Hamburg. He was lucky to leave...
Sir Isaac Newton, the celebrated English philosopher
My dad had a lot of stories about when he came to the United States. He was lucky to leave Germany in 1927, before Hitler came to power. He was a carpenter, and had heard from his father, who was already in the US, that there were lots of jobs over in this...
Statue of Liberty
My father told me he had only cried two times in his life. The first time was after his voyage from Germany across the Atlantic. As his ship pulled into New York Harbor, he cried when he saw the Statue of Liberty for the first time. The second time was when he got fired from his job at Curtiss-Wright, an American airplane manufacturer, the day the United States entered the Second World War. Even though he was a U.S. citizen, he was fired since he was German.
The Garden of Second Chances
I love gardens. I wish mine looked like the "Secret Garden" in the movie, with its climbing roses, vines and daffodils, but I've come to appreciate the succulents and bougainvillea of Southern California. The thing I like best about gardens is that they always give...
Istanbul
Rick Steves, the travel expert, wrote an editorial in the LA Times last year. His message was: "Afraid of terrorism? Get on a plane!" We are so bombarded by reports of terrorism that we forget that most people are just like us –– not just in the U.S., but all...
Empty Nest?
My birds have gotten out of hand! I seem to be on the edge of ecological disaster in my backyard –– too many nests and species all crowding together. When my children left home, never to return –– as children ought to do –– I did feel like an empty-nester. But...
How does an atheist get through a traumatic experience?
I had been a Catholic my whole life, and a nun for six of those years. It wasn’t until a mountain lion attacked my 5-year-old daughter, standing next to me in a stream, and almost killed her, that I wondered for the first time whether there was really a God. Once I asked that question, there was no going back.
How Do You Define Yourself?
Who are you? How do you define yourself? Some people can combine what they love and what they do. Teachers, photographer, lawyers, or artists. Others are defined by what they have to do to make a living. Are you defined by what you do or love—or by what happens to...
