Places
Taking My First Step Toward a Stranger
If you’re lonely, you can spot another lonely person a mile off. The lonely can recognize kin.
How My Parents, Who Loved Grapes, Lost Their Love of Winemaking
Others began to intrude in what had once been a mom-and-pop operation. The conversion from hobby to profession had been made.
What It’s Like to Travel When You Have a “Bad” Passport
I am a Kenyan, an African, someone from the ‘global south.’ It is my job to prove I deserve to travel. It doesn’t matter how talented or smart or wealthy I or others like me are; we need a good passport.
I Wanted to Know Why the Ocean Ate My Grandfather
As a child of many cultures, I wasn’t sure I could lay claim to one. But I learned that identity can grow and stretch, widen and encompass more than a single country or language.
Honesty Is the Best Policy—Especially in Focus Groups
There will always be liars in the focus group, but Fred was never one of them.
What Happens When You’re in the Elevator with the Boss’s Son
It’s happened for the past three days now. A three-day streak definitely qualifies it as A capitalized Thing.
The Medi-morphosis: Being Treated Like a Human Under Socialized Health Care
In France, universal (or socialized) health care is half-NASA, half-MacGyver. And it works. I have to suspect the main objection to adopting the best healthcare system on the planet is just that it’s French.
Facing My Fears in the World’s Largest Sand Desert
We were three single Americans with a whiskey handle. What reception would we wake to if we fall asleep on the wrong sand?
In a Digital World, I Tried to Write My Love in the Analog
There is a special gesture in the analog, in putting love to paper, when everything is in code.
