Right now it is storming outside and my dog is going nuts. Trying to wriggle under the desk when thunder booms, scurrying into the bathroom shower stall when lightning flashes, running between me and the door as if to blame me for the rain. She’s gotten eccentric as...
#truestory category
About the Time I was Absolutely and Terrifyingly Lost in Panama
Sep 17, 2012 | #truestory
A year ago I was Lost. No-cell-phone-service Lost. The-road-is-a-gravel-track-through-cane-fields Lost. Set Sail One Day Five girlfriends had set out from Panama City to go to El Valle, about two hours away. We’d go to the Sunday crafts market there and have lunch at...
A 9/11 Story
Sep 11, 2012 | #truestory
I was sitting in a small auditorium at the Colegio Americano in Mexico City waiting for the meeting to start. The room was full of women and the occasion was the annual meeting of Mexico’s Secretariat of Education with the school’s parents. I knew I wouldn’t...
The Power of Daddy
Jul 19, 2012 | #truestory
Once upon a time, when we lived in Panama, I was walking the dog and passed a construction site where the workers were engaged in a furious argument. The Spanish flew too fast for me to catch every word but anger came through in every red-faced yell and hostile...
Why We Keep Searching
Jun 7, 2012 | #truestory
Whatever remains to man unknown, in this world of ours, is by so much a burden on the spirits of all men . . . every mystery made plain, every unknown land explored, exalts the spirit of the whole human race--strengthens its courage and exalts its spirit permanently....
The Girl on the Other Side of the Earth
May 29, 2012 | #truestory
When my daughter was little I wanted to give her a sense of her place in the world. We got a globe and calculated the exact opposite spot if one drew a straight line through the center of the earth from where we were. We hit China.We started to tell each other...
Padre Ricardo and the Sacristy of Santa Clara
May 3, 2012 | #thrillers, #truestory
The Hidden Light of Mexico City contains a number of references from my own experiences in Mexico City. I've already written about the class struggle of simply standing in a line but also wanted to share a sadder, more compelling event that helped shape the book's...
The Kitchen UN
Mar 26, 2012 | #truestory
Oslo in June is a wonderful place. Clouds scud across a cobalt sky and the harbor is thronged with boats, tourists, and the smell of lilacs. After months of Arctic winter grey, the city is stretching itself awake in the midnight sun. You stay up long after sunset at...
Land of the Unexpected
Mar 19, 2012 | #truestory
Once upon a time, I took a trip with a similarly adventurous-minded girlfriend to Papua New Guinea, which bills itself as "The Land of the Unexpected." I doubt it has changed much since then; it is a wild, mountainous place where the wheel was never invented....
At the End of the Line
Feb 21, 2012 | #thrillers, #truestory
Let's set the scene Luz filled out a form to cash the check at a mahogany counter then went to the end of the line. It moved very slowly and grew very long. Luz had ample time to look around. The bank was an elegant place of glass and darkly veined marble...
A Walk in Her Shoes
Jan 29, 2012 | #truestory
I recently was on a plane heading from Central America to the United States. I had the aisle seat. Next to me, in the middle seat, was a middle-aged woman who was obviously new to airline travel. The flight attendant rapped out directions how to buckle the seatbelt...