For many people, this is a time of great uncertainty – they don’t know what is going to happen next. For those of us who study history, what happens next isn’t the question, but rather how bad it will be – and what happens after that. This may sound like the same thing, and as far as most people are concerned it probably is. But there is a boundary to what might possibly go down and there are known likely effects of this situation. The more we understand what happened before, the more we can take confidence that we at least know where we are.
Monthly Archives: March 2009
Values
I was challenged recently to explain what happened to our economy in simple terms. I set myself a limit of 800 words, and as you can see I failed. But I like this essay and I hope you do, too. I don’t want to take out anything.
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Routine
The kids are off to school, and the morning shifts into a dull quiet. It’s time to do what I have to do – time for a routine. Getting back into it is difficult when there’s little definition to my constant scrambling for work, but it’s important. The research trip to Miami is long over with now, and I’m back alone in the cold silence of my Saint Paul routine.
Miami
I’ve been on vacation for the last 3 days in Miami. Since this is where I grew up, it’s a strange place to take a “vacation” – but rather than get away from it all I’ve always been one to get in the middle of it. I was tagging along with my partner Cristy who went to a conference, meaning the hotel part was taken care of. It gave me a chance to research my novel a bit and see just what has changed.
Little has changed. It’s about what I remember.
¿Dónde Está el Baño?
The train between concourses in Atlanta Hartsfield airport is full of the heat, sweat, and silence any traveler comes to expect. There are three electric signs explaining the situation – one in English, one rolling between French, German, and Spanish, and the last one the more artful display of Arabic, Japanese, and Korean. Whichever one made the most sense to any particular traveler was unclear as we all kept our language to ourselves. Certainly, for many of them, English would have been enough – and not just because we were at the portal to Atlanta. To many people around the world, the language of the new globalization is the youngest one of all.
Barataria - The work of Erik Hare 