World View

To be remembered is subjective, but to be forgotten is universal. I began my full-time teaching career as a last-minute replacement for a professor who took another job a couple of weeks before the semester began. My primary task was to teach a graduate personal leadership course she had developed exactly the way she did […]

Connection is our default. If you are an avid reader of social media comments like me, it is tempting to give up on humans for their sheer pettiness. For example, recently, a woman waiting at a red light posted a video of a negligent driver causing an accident. People chided her for filming and not

Some stars are born despite black holes.      Last week, I watched the Malayalam blockbuster film RDX on Netflix. It lives up to the hype of a kickass out-and-out action movie. Even the film’s villains are receiving public adulation, a rare occurrence among a lead-obsessed audience, and this film has three of them. The film works

In an early writing exercise in her book, “The Way of a Fearless Writer,” Beth Kempton asks you to empty your bag and write about its contents. I decided to write about the “god pouch” I have carried in my bag for over a decade, although its contents have doubled. My god pouch is my

Time just gets away from us with True Grit. Last week was magical. I stumbled upon the 2010 Coen Brothers’ film, True Grit, and was so besotted with it that I went down the True Grit rabbit hole: the 1969 classic starring John Wayne, Charles Portis’s book, and the audiobook read by the delightful Donna

Life is more than cause and effect.   I decided to write this piece after reading the article about the murder of David Breaux (pictured above), also known as the “compassion guy,” a regular fixture in the UC Davis park. Breaux, a Jamaican immigrant, and Stanford graduate, shunned the typical path of finding a cushy job

Jane Eyre is the original feminist.   I recently revisited my favorite book, Jane Eyre, after watching the superb film, Emily, about Emily Brontë. Although I’ve often re-read my favorite sections of the book, I was rereading it from cover to cover after more than a decade. Some of its chinks, like its black-and-white portrayal of

History repeats itself; just watch the dogs.  Seeing dogs in the NYC streets always gives me a sense of déjà vu. Are we at the cusp of the dogs’ civil rights movement? A non-violent uprising that will see them achieve equality with their masters. You see, it always starts with the indignity of performing one’s

Effective persuasion is passive-aggressive.   “Please adjust” is India’s infallible persuasion mantra. In a country of over a billion people, scarcity is a way of life, and you must give and take to keep things on an even keel. Please adjust is a polite request to someone to make some space; wait a little longer or

Please kiss but don’t tell. Mary Oliver’s blisteringly beautiful poem, “Someone I know,” ticked me off. Please read the poem before I explain why.     I know someone who kisses the way a flower opens but more rapidly. Flowers are sweet. They have short, beatific lives. They offer much pleasure. There is nothing in the world