“Greek, Japanese, Russian, French, and British cultures are all familiar to me. I adapt quickly when in a foreign country, reach into my memories to speak the appropriate language, behave in the accepted…

“To me, the plight of refugees is personal. The suffering of a besieged people, tortured, raped, murdered by creatures whom I chose to think of as subhuman, but know are all too human,…

“In honor of Valentine’s Day, a few little snippets about love.”—Helen Noakes Waking Point By Helen Noakes SAN FRANCISCO California—(Weekly Hubris)—February 2019—In honor of Valentine’s Day, a few little snippets about love .…

“I know that, for many, this season brings deep melancholy or worse. Being mindful of that fact, may I suggest that if you know someone who is alone at this time of year,…

“The continuing popularity of the books I’ve mentioned is evidence of our interest in encountering, however vicariously, those archetypal things that go bump in the night. But why? I can’t help but believe…

“My Great Uncle Costas who, when I was a child, spoke to me of matters glorious and ideas which other adults considered far beyond my understanding, once told me that time moved backwards…

“A salient fact about dictators or aspiring despots is that they consistently place the blame for all the ills of the world on “the other.” They seduce followers by affirming that any tribulations…

“When Jeff Sessions went to California and announced this program, I thought it would be tied up in the courts and never implemented. But now, here it is, being enforced by the United…

“In the days immediately following the slaughter of so many young people, articulate student voices are reminding America that the right to life supersedes the right to kill. De Tocqueville said, ‘The greatness…

“And so, I hear the news, knowing what ultimately befalls swaggering megalomaniacs and their minions and, turning off the chaos, set about living my life as I choose to live it.”—Helen Noakes Waking…