On the Fourth of July my husband and I happened to be in Dallas, Texas, where we were visiting a young couple from Lebanon. We have known the wife since she was a cute little seven year old. Now she has a hospitable husband and two handsome little boys. That evening we all drove […]
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At the publishing house I directed for 24 years in Lebanon our chief translator and editor had unusual editorial skills. As a translator he never wrote a word until he was sure he understood the intention of the English author, and in the end the work seemed to have originated in Arabic. The classical […]
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Recently, while traveling, circumstances beyond my control caused me to become uncommonly hungry. Hunger is something I cannot endure well, because of a tendency to hypoglycemia. I have on occasions become dysfunctional, unable to think, and afterwards could not remember what I had done. But on the day I am speaking of, I just […]
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Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, whoever he was down deep, whatever his motivation, regardless of his legal right to own an assault weapon, has done more than he could have expected to do when he planned to slaughter a roomful of unsuspecting people. He may not have intended to play into the hands of a reckless […]
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Memorial Day is a perfect time to commend and defend the soldiers whom we as a country have burdened with tasks risky to their bodies and souls. It goes without saying that, if our country is at war then the people on the front edge of executing that war deserve our love. This does not […]
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Jesus was an original thinker, a revolutionary, with a tendency to turn the prevailing ideals upside down. But when Jesus said, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” he was quoting the Old Testament, reminding his listeners of something they were supposed to know already. And you, my reader, know that […]
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In the last ten or more years of her life my mother was quite deaf. The results of her deafness were fascinating once I learned to step back and think about them. First, she tended to fill her silence by talking a lot, a thing she had never done before. Second, she interrupted other […]
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This morning, April 26, I opened the online Beirut Daily Star and looked for items of special interest to me. The one that caught my eye was an opinion piece headlined like this: “A manifesto to end our dysfunctional politics.” I jumped on this article quickly, eager to learn how Lebanon is going to […]
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On the same day that the disastrous flood waters snatched people away in Houston, I saw a picture of a rainbow. The two together caused me to open my Bible and read again the story of Noah and the great flood. Virtually every tribe on earth has a flood story, not exactly the same but […]
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On International Women’s Day it occurred to me that I should write a story about a Middle Eastern woman, a story that would be a tribute to the brave and noble women of our world. Then I become indecisive, knowing so many women— smart women, strong women, abused and used women, courageous, creative, happy […]
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