Archive for Fashion/Lifestyle – Page 17

Slow Down… Words to Live By

ciao-bella-roma

“Slow down, you move too fast

You got to make the morning last,

Just kicking down the cobblestones

Looking for fun and feelin’ groovy…

 

Got no deeds to do

No promises to keep.

I’m dappled and drowsy and ready for sleep.

Let the morning time drop all its petals on me.

Life, I love you,

All is groovy.”

Paul Simon got it right… and something made me dig into my unconscious for those words (59th Street Bridge Song) while sitting at a sidewalk caffe’ in Rome stressing out about the lack of a good Wifi connection. read more

Geography is Destiny…

Geography is destiny – Abraham Verghese in Cutting for Stone

The most interesting, literate, progressive, and beautiful places on earth are not necessarily those that are furthest away. When asked to pick a city with these attributes the list will likely include Paris, London, Rome, Berlin, Copenhagen, Singapore, Hong Kong, Capetown, San Francisco and others but never, until lately, has Seattle cracked my Top Ten. Surviving Seattle has always been my mantra because of the weather, but I’m rethinking that in view of a recent epiphany. read more

Is There a Case for Optimism?

Sometimes I’m living the dream… safe and sound in America. But sometimes I behold the nightmare on the flipside of my dream. In the dream I am a child of privilege – born healthy, of middle class white parents, in the middle of the 20th century in America. It’s all about timing and location. Too young to know the deprivation of the Great Depression. Too young to fight in WWII and Korea. Military service before Vietnam. Too old for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two public universities while they were still free, and now receiving full Social Security and Medicare just as it was promised. I can’t imagine a better dream but it’s not a dream it’s my reality. read more

The Insurance Child

No pictures please…

When Westerners spend time in Vietnam there is one subject that almost always comes up – older white males and young Vietnamese women. The streets are full of them and the combinations are limitless. They always provoke a reaction. What are they about? Some are about hope. Some are about sex. Some are about romance. Some seem desperate. Some are depressing. Some are disgusting. Some are funny. Some are normal. Some are predatory. Some are sweet. Some are sour. Some are scandalous. Some are hard to look at. Some are vets with nostalgia for another time. Some are just what you think they are. Most of them are about money one way or another. read more