From Behind

There's something poignant about pictures taken from behind. Maybe it's because we're so often leaving each other by seeking new adventures,


staring off into a private space,


or losing ourselves with someone we love.

Quotes of the Week

Here's what a few people said this week. We need voices like these when hypocrisy and deception are so widespread:

Reporter Marie Colvin, speaking before she died yesterday about Syrian armed forces: “It’s a complete and utter lie they’re only going after terrorists. The Syrian Army is simply shelling a city of cold, starving civilians.”

Virologist Renato Dulbecco, who died Sunday and whose Nobel Prize-winning research showed that genetic mutations cause cancer: “While we spend our life asking questions about the nature of cancer and ways to prevent or cure it, society merrily produces oncogenic substances and permeates the environment with them.”

New York Times columnist Gail Collins, yesterday, in discussion with David Brooks about the abortion legislation proposed in Virginia: "I’m being driven crazy by people who are obsessed with limiting the scope of government, but feel perfectly free to demand that government get involved in women’s most personal choices."

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich commenting on the huge sums of money that superdonors are contributing to conservative PACs: "Whoever emerges as the GOP standard-bearer will be deeply indebted to a handful of people, each of whom will expect a good return on their investment. . . Never before in the history of our Republic have so few spent so much to influence the votes of so many."

Food writer Mark Bittman commenting on Procter & Gamble's sale of Pringles to Kelloggs: "[If we didn't process so much real food,]Kellogg’s and P.&G.’s bottom lines might not look so good. We ourselves, however, might look better, as would our health care bills, which in general rise along with Big Food’s influence and profits."

The Garden: Yard Art

Although early signs of spring have started to erupt in our yard, it still looks pretty stark. Browns and grays dominate, and the sky is that pale blue shade of late winter. With this landscape as a backdrop, my yard ornaments take on new life.


This fairy's face reminds me of my face as a child, though I didn't have curly hair. Nor did I sprout wings. I was a Brownie, however, and the beanie on her head resembles the beanies we wore with our uniforms. Interestingly, brownies are a sub-category of fairies who lived in Scotland and northern England. They didn't talk with humans and were visible only to those lucky people who possessed second sight. I would love to see a fairy, but I don't think they exist. The world seems too harsh for such delicate creatures.


Mosaics are found all over the world in Christian, Jewish, and Islamic art. I saw spectacular mosaic floors and ceilings in Ravenna and Venice many years ago. This tile was made by my daughter when she was in pre-school. It's my all-time favorite. Take that, Amy Chua, Tiger Mom.


Bird Bath and Beyond.


The salamander, or eft (if you do crossword puzzles), is a lizard-like type of amphibian. Newt is another crossword answer for salamander and brings to mind, of course, Newt Gingrich--whom we hear nothing about these days. Funny how the Republican candidates for president rise and fall so quickly. My newt, or eft, or salamander lives more simply at the edge of a small pond; he can, however, regrow his leg or tail if it falls off. Take that, Newt.


St. Francis of Assisi looks sad here, perhaps because he's drowning in the leaves that I have yet to clear away. Or perhaps he heard what Mitt Romney said recently about poor people: "I'm not concerned about the very poor," Romney said. "We have a safety net there." St. Francis, on the other hand, devoted his life to poverty. He took Jesus at his word, from the Book of Matthew, and cast aside all worldly goods to spread the news of love and repentance to ordinary people. Sometimes I wonder what version of Christianity our Republican candidates subscribe to.

Drug Shortages

The news this week that hospitals face a shortage of the drug methotrexate to treat a form of childhood leukemia sent chills down my spine. Imagine being the parent of a child ill with this disease and learning that, here in the United States, we don't produce enough of this curative drug. You'd think that you were living in a developing country, not in the richest nation in the world.

When I hear stories like this, I feel confirmed in my belief that our nation has its values turned upside-down. If there's one thing we should be able to do well, it is to take care of our sick citizens, especially our children. We have the best research institutions in the world, devoted doctors and nurses with access to the highest-quality equipment, a long-standing tradition of manufacturing, and pharmaceutical companies raking in huge sums of money. Surely this combination of talent and wealth should produce life-saving drugs.

Yet 287 drugs are currently in short supply.

The horror stories are forcing Washington to pay attention, and some effective measures have been implemented. Still, we should demand better for ourselves and for our fellow citizens around the world. Most of us would agree that our family's health is what's most important. Can't we demand that our leaders and institutions follow suit?

If I Only Had a Maid

What will we do on Sunday nights at 9:00 now that Downton Abbey is concluding its second series? Order up a household staff? Get a footman to brush off our lint?

It's been fun, this romp through British aristocracy, and I look forward to Series 3 this fall. Nonetheless, I ask myself why--like so many people--I'm hooked. Lots of reasons, I've concluded. It's an excellent plot. It has the same elements that made Victorian readers await Charles Dickens' next installment of The Pickwick Papers and, more recently, children (and often their parents) await Harry Potter's next adventure. In all our pseudo-sophistication we forget sometimes the power of a well-told story.

Downton Abbey is also great theater. The acting is excellent. Watching Maggie Smith skewer an opponent or Hugh Bonneville dispatch a threat satisfies at the deepest level, while period costumes and views of the British countryside create a visual delight.

At the same time, it's interesting that this show arrives in America just as we're learning that we're not the Horatio Alger society that we thought we were. As Paul Krugman writes recently in The New York Times, "Among rich countries, America stands out as the place where economic and social status is most likely to be inherited." Hmm, we thought that's what England was all about.

So it turns out that in watching Downton Abbey we're watching a version of ourselves, albeit from the comfortable distance of time and space. In this spirit, I've composed a piece that kept bouncing around in my head, based on "If I Only Had a Brain," from The Wizard of Oz:

I could be a one-percenter
And pay a tax rate lower
Than all the folks downstairs.
I could be a hedge fund owner
All those loopholes, all the better
If I only had a maid.

I could be just like Lord Grantham
And live inside a mansion
Commanding everyone.
But the British do it better
Here I'm only a jet setter
Oh, I wish I had a maid.

Yes, I could be a Lord
I'm sure I'd not be bored
I could think of things like capital gains
And then I'd sit and earn some more.

I'd make all that unearned income
That guarantees a big sum
I'd be a lot like Mitt.
Here I come, oh Downton Abbey
With my tax-exempted plenty
Yes, I found myself a maid.

Grand Old Pandemonium

There's something refreshing about seeing the national Republican Party in such disarray as the presidential primary lurches from one state to the next. Republicans used to march as one, or so it seemed, and Democrats spawned rebels, sabotaging themselves in one election after another.

The Republican Party leaders, whoever they are, don't seem to have much control over the regular folks, and issues like gay marriage and abortion (masquerading as contraception) keep getting in the way. It's as if the Republicans have their own version of Viet Nam, fracturing a once unified group.

I hope eventually they evolve into a more reasonable party as we need thoughtful, informed leadership from different perspectives. In the meantime, I'm glad it's not us. Divisiveness gets old and feels immature.

And it's sort of fun to watch.

Teeming With Life

Having returned last night from a family visit to Phoenix, Arizona, I looked for quotes about the desert. Clever and witty observations abound, but this one, from Professor Ellsworth Huntington (a Yale geographer in the early 20th century) captures what I found most surprising: "As a matter of fact, an ordinary desert supports a much greater variety of plants than does either a forest or a prairie."

I’ve always loved the desert, despite having been told by friends over the years that it’s hostile and forbidding. Maybe, but its stark beauty bewitches me. The saguaros look almost human as they grow arms that reach for the sky, and the rock formations look like something from outer space.

Perhaps best of all, you can see forever—and in that endless view life keeps rolling on and on, despite the heat and the drought. Life in the most unlikely place under the sun.

The New Duke Chapel

Our country's temples used to be churches and synagogues. Now they're medical centers. Do we really want to worship at the altar of high-tech medicine?