Selected Essays

These memories,
thoughts and contemplations
reflect general observations
of the human condition,
as I have experienced it,
and present a few things
I have learned
in the mean time.

The Flow of Life
"A story my children loved when they were young was about a mouse, an owl, a grandfather clock, a taxicab, and many, many others..."

All Things Must Fall
"When I was a young boy living with my family on a remote ranch over near the coast not too far from here..."

Free Will in the Face of Fate
"She came to my consultation room with the recovered memory of a great man's counsel, and a terrible childhood trauma..."

Mamad's New Stories
"It was many, many years ago that a young man by the name of Mamad suddenly appeared at my home in Berkeley..."

Running With the Cajun Mardi Gras
“They gather for an hour or so late in the morning— all ages, and most of them in costume— in a farmyard out near Church Point...”

Sorts of Punishment
"His mother waited in the corridor outside the courtroom, just as she had promised him she would, while the judge passed sentence..."

Embodied Prayers
"What follows is the text of a small book that resulted from my friendship with two remarkable women, and in particular from the work that we did together at Westerbeke Ranch near Sonoma, from 1994 through 1997."

An Illness in the Family
"These are several articles that were published during the time our daughter was being treated for cancer. They have not been edited, in order to preserve the immediacy of the voice as events unwound during those very difficult years."