On learning a new language, and gaining a family
As I broke the Ramadan fast with my Turkish teacher, I took a moment to reflect For the second year in a row, my dear friend and Turkish teacher has invited my husband and me, along with our Turkish class, to break the Ramadan fast with her and her lovely family. This year has been quite a year for Muhsine Aykac, our beautiful teacher. She received her master’s degree in education a couple of weeks after becoming a United States citizen. Her husband, Salih, is working on his dissertation to receive his Ph.D. These are hard working people who are raising three beautiful children as good Muslims and good citizens in Albuquerque. We are so fortunate to know them. They have become family. And because of Muhsine’s sincere heart, we have all grown under her tutelage in...
What Does It Mean to Be “Wild and Free” in Today’s World?
As I drove up to my friends’ house the other day, this fellow was in their driveway. He was heading to the birdbath to have a drink of water. He ran off, as I pulled in, his muscles taut and strained in flight, a flash of phenomenal beauty. He returned once I was inside, and so I caught this photo from the front window. A wild horse of Placitas, he cantered wild and free. What does that even mean anymore? I struggle with this question, as I wrestle with the future of our planet, the earth that has been our home for so many years. Our President’s most recent decision to dump our country into a category of now three countries standing alone against the Paris Accords, putting us in the company of Syria and Nicaragua, has sent me into quite a funk. Even if one does...
Keeping My Nose to the Grindstone
The difference between the black and white rhino is not their actual color but the shape of their lips. The black rhino has a pointed lip to pluck fruits off branches and to sort leaves from twigs. The white rhino grazes, and so has a flat, wide lip suitable for grasses. Both the black and white rhino have poor eyesight. He is more frightened than he is aggressive. Although, when he is spooked, he appears to possess a bad temper and be easily provoked. This is why the rhino comes to mind just as my family memoir, Myopia, a memoir, reaches the press. Nathan Mitnick, the star of this memoir, is somewhat of a rhino himself. Prone to charge when faced head on, Nathan (as well as the rest of us) all suffered from extreme myopia. And we were taught, from the earliest...
My Sister’s Living Room: A Reading and Signing for What Survives in Denver, Colorado
For animal lovers, I repent. There are none in this blog but the human kind! Stay tuned for more four-legged creatures in future blogs. I do not like to disappoint! Even though there were five inches of snow on the ground on April 29, we were an even dozen gathered for a reading and signing at home of my sister, Gay. I thought I had the best book club anywhere, but my sister’s is, at the very least, clearly on a par with mine. Everyone had read the book (not the case in all book clubs), and they had excellent questions and comments. One lovely couple had lived in Egypt for a number of years and raised interesting issues with regard to the Muslim faith and the observance of Ramadan. Paula stated that if one had a medical exemption from fasting (as Adalet did),...
Myths and Bad Reputations in South Africa and Around the World
Does this hyena pup know its reputation? Does it have any idea how it is depicted in Disney films? This innocent little fellow my husband and I saw on a 12-day bush trip in Africa has not a notion of how he’s been presented to the world and how that might affect his future. He does not even own the spots, yet that will identify him his whole life as the spotted hyena or the laughing hyena. Would he wish to rid himself of them if he knew? Human babies have this dilemma as well. A dark-skinned human baby has no idea that his skin color will affect his whole journey in life. Perhaps on this basis alone, he will be viewed as a predator, seeking to injure or kill other humans for his assumed savagery, his own selfish gain or to merely challenge the color “white.”...
Elephants Both In And Out Of The Room
If I had it to do all over again, I would devote myself to the study of the elephant. Sadly, there is only so much one can cram into the too few years of a lifetime, and so I consider myself lucky to have been able to spend some time with them. Elephants are impressive creatures with a fascinating culture. Last year when my husband I spent 12 days in the bush on a trip to Africa, I noticed that no matter how many animals we were seeing, the elephants never lost their allure. Always led by a matriarch, the herd does not tolerate incest. If a bull gets out of hand and tries to mate within the family, he is ousted and becomes a rogue, but the females never leave their herd. They are devoted to one another and have been known to return to the site of the death of a...
Mad Dogs and Englishmen… or Wild Dogs and Americans
Reflections on Them vs. Us As some of my readers might have noticed, I am extremely fond of animals, animal images and animal metaphors. Some say that animals differ from humans in that they don’t possess souls. I challenge anyone to live with critters for a bit and to uphold that theory. All the animals who’ve chosen to live with me (and it has been their choice) most definitely have souls, deeper souls than many of the Homo sapiens I’ve known. Last fall, my husband and I took a trip to South Africa and Zimbabwe. One of the highlights was an up-close sighting of a pack of wild dogs. You can see just how close we were to them by the outline of the vehicle in the photo. These are a seriously endangered species. Our tracker had only seen them twice in ten years....
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