Beauty, whether in the animal or human world, exists in the eye of the beholder. Evolution is as much about allure, sensory delight, and subjective experiences as it as about survival of the fittest.
In memory of a talented young teacher and rapper, Nes Wordz, featuring an excerpt from his rendition of the Homeric encounter between Odysseus and Polyphemus.
Nostalgia is our reaction to rapid social change. It expresses our desire to return to a time we imagine as happier and more innocent. Cavafy’s cosmopolitanism was an ideal we cannot recreate. But neither should we dismiss it, as many are want to do, because of its imperfections and injustices.
Friendship linked our dinner with Irakli and Anna, our drive to the Caucasus Mountains, and our final discussions in Tbilisi on conflict resolution. Friends inspire us to escape the monasticism of our thinking by asking us to embrace people who live outside our home.
With culture as a space of action, artists can showcase alternative ways of being American in defiance of Trumpism.
In a place of diminished resources, cultural work takes on a different meaning as students learn for no credit and professors teach for no pay.
At the end of the service, after the monks left with their stern but beatific expressions, I stepped out to the terrace, hundreds of feet from the sea. At the distance the sun shimmered, calming the waves of the Aegean. The morning was all aglow. Was I beholding a revelation?
In the literary market, there is a preference for narrative over analysis that provides plenty of anecdotal evidence but little understanding.
For travelers it is difficult to untangle from the contradictions of tourism, colonialism, and inequality.
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