Essays

A selection of Essays for a time in your life.

I wanted to write “random” before selection.

But as much as I sometimes think we are forging a path through a chaotic allegory,

I do believe in an order to it all. Of our own making.

Simple. Stories we pull into our own life. Stumble upon. Spend a second skimming.

Needed in the moment. Or not. But there nonetheless.

  • El Niño Simplified

    El Niño Simplified

    We have heard much about El Niño recently – the much maligned phenomenon responsible for some record warm Christmases from New York to Atlanta on the US East coast. “El Niño is wreaking havoc with our weather” is an ice-breaker (ha ha) from water cooler to cocktail hour across the…

  • A Response : The Thing All Women Do That You Don’t Know About

    A Response : The Thing All Women Do That You Don’t Know About

    Read my Response to the Huffington Post article – “The Thing All Women Do That You Don’t Know About”. Way to grab attention with a headline! It’s a good one and I click, wondering: what do I, and all women do, that men don’t know about? The author writes wonderfully…

  • Christmas Presents

    Christmas Presents

    What shall I buy for Christmas ? What I remember of Christmas mornings as a child is the tree, or more to the point, all the presents under the tree.  My family was not wealthy, but we had enough, and my mother (perhaps owing to her own difficult and deprived…

  • Africa Does Not Exist Anywhere Else

    Africa Does Not Exist Anywhere Else

    Africa does not exist anywhere else. You can look at pictures and hear stories but it’s not there. It’s not in the smell of rain on your dusty foothills, though that smell is as synonymous with Africa as any.  It’s not in the sound of waves crashing on your craggy…

  • Looking at History

    Looking at History

    The world’s stage beckons. Sometimes the odds are stacked in our favor, a glittering temple of ambition achieved, enemies vanquished and life preserved. Sometimes – stage right – sirens blare and neon warnings blink and airplanes hover, bomb, hurtle to the moon, Mars, the depths of the Indian Ocean ………

  • Home Is Where the Hearth Is

    Home Is Where the Hearth Is

    Many, many years ago I attended a work function one winter evening at a destination I can’t remember in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa.  We walked into this large, open room.  It was sparsely decorated, cold high ceilings and dimly lit by candlelight and fire. The massive, stone…

  • A Walk in the Woods

    A Walk in the Woods

    Dogs sit in cages in “research” torture chambers around the world.  Injected with diseased cells, force-fed powerful drugs, chemicals, hormones, alcohol ……….. in the name of “science” and “finding a cure”. We turn a blind eye to the inhumanity, buy shares in Big Pharma companies and swallow down an Advil…

  • No, you can’t follow from a distance.

    No, you can’t follow from a distance.

    My son (P) is 9 and a budding junior golfer.  Today he is playing in tournament at our Club.  He is playing with 2 other boys in his flight, they are older, both their dads are driving the carts. P very firmly tells me in no uncertain terms that he…