When I visit San Francisco— when I return “home”— a surging and vibrant energy fills, thrills and buoys my body, mind and spirit. All of my senses come alive as I immerse myself in The City’s eclectic mix of people, places, life styles, vehicles, sounds, smells, weather, and activities. I love the hustle-bustle and polite jumble on the sidewalks: tourists craning to see the sights, business people heading to the office, food carts selling hot dogs and pretzels, street people seeking a place of shelter, [...]

Arizona, the home of my heritage, no longer feels like home. The high skies and endless horizons… the warmth of the desert sun in February… the sights, sounds and smells of a spring training game at the ball park… all make it a grand place to visit. But the meanness of spirit in a state that has become the capitol of America’s rightwing politics makes it a place I no longer want to live (see “A Fond Farewell” under travel archives). Three new examples follow: [...]

Where have all the soldiers gone? Long time passing… Where have all the soldiers gone? Long time ago… Where have all the soldiers gone? Gone to graveyards everyone… When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?  (Pete Seeger, 1961) At the beginning of this journey I visited Hiroshima and reflected in this blog about war and death. I close with a similar reflection from my experience in the Tyne Cot Cemetery, the final resting place for the tens of thousands of men who [...]

After spending two weeks in India and Kenya, my first glimpse of Cape Town was a culture shock to my system. I had become used to packed sidewalks and congested streets, to standing out as a minority wherever I went, to being careful of what and where I ate, and to the gritty, dusty third-world texture of everyday life. Then I arrived in Cape Town. On the surface it is a modern, sparkling clean, prosperous, vibrant Mediterranean city of 4.5 million people. My hotel was [...]

I met Saint Mary of the Valley during my visit to Kenya.  Her proper name is Mary W. Muiruri and she is the Executive Director of an orphanage located in Kenya’s Rift Valley, about an hour’s drive from Nairobi. Mary is a woman who every day lives out the words of the prophet Micah: “Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God”, and she would certainly disclaim the title I have given her. Mary and her eight siblings were reared in a mud hut, [...]