Role Models

Patti Smith wanted to be Rimbaud. In “Just Kids,” she describes her pilgrimage to the Rimbaud museum in France. And her attempts to dress like him. I wanted to be Madeleine L’Engle. And Man Ray. I am a little L’Engle: Episcopalian (partly her influence, but T.S. Eliot helped), frequenter of Broadway plays, introvert, demurely and […]

Microcosm

I went to see “Cabaret” last week, and I am still worried about Herr Schultz. He’s the Jewish character who thinks the Nazi thing will blow over. The people who put on the Holocaust educators’ seminar I attended last summer were some of the smartest, kindest people I’ve ever met. The studies themselves were a […]

Sanity

Immediate apology: this is not about going crazy. It’s about getting sane. I know that’s less interesting. But: some people like to read about how sanity can return. Especially the currently insane. If you’re not insane, and think you could never be, or that no tough, clever person could ever go crazy, then you can […]

Poetry

I remember phrases from childhood travels, not images or events. Glass-bottomed boat. Lion Country Safari. Circus Circus. The musicality of the words meant more to me than the actual experiences. All I remember about the glass-bottomed boat was my incredulousness. How could a boat have a glass bottom? I pictured a little motorboat with a […]