Today in Brasil is a holiday. Pleasant little name: “Day of the Dead.” Sounds like a horror movie, doesn´t it? But, it is a real holiday. Everybody tries to do nice things for the spirits of the dead so the spirits don´t do evil things to them. Trick or treat anyone?! How do you do […]
Jet Lag — an alternated state of mind
Ever been on an airplane for a really long time? I just got off a flight that qualified. Raleigh to Miami, then Miami to the middle of the Amazon jungle — Manaus. Hot, steamy, and after an all night flight, generally sticky enough to be glued to my seat like I was velcro. Then to […]
Falling up with my eyes closed
Sometimes you do something right, even when you didn’t know that you were . . . Take December 1978, for example. I did something, or better, I participated in something, that I had no clue would turn out the way it did. What is so interesting is that a little child in Africa who wasn’t […]
“Hey! Uncle Joe! Gimme a dime!”
“Hey! Uncle Joe! Gimme a dime!” Huh? I was minding my own business, walking down a crowded, noisy street in downtown Fortaleza, a bustling city of almost 2 million in northeastern Brazil. It was late 1983 and I had been living in the city for the past year. Very few people knew my name, much […]
My wife cried yesterday . . .
My wife cried yesterday . . . Odd way to began a post, don’t you think? I do. You see, my wife rarely cries, unless she is in pain. The pain can be physical or it can be emotional. But, it has to be significant. “Sentimental” female she’s not (now, just so there’s no misunderstanding, […]