The Only Black Person in the Room
Belonging was a concept I could long neither feel nor grasp. Eight years ago while on a yacht circling the Marina del Rey channel, I answered my then white German partner why I didn’t know anyone besides the hosts of…
The Night of the Hessian Soldier
I stood on the street below my apartment on East 6th Street in Manhattan, waiting for an unmarked van to pick me up and drive me to an unknown location. I did know the person who contacted me, but in…
East Hill Farm
Once upon a time… many years ago, when a now very old man was but a youth, he felt something was mysteriously missing in his life, but he didn’t know what it was or where to find it. He wasn’t…
Arrernte Land
A jumble of buildings squatted some distance away, dark, and low. Not a sight I, at my age of eight, imagined part of Dad’s homeland. Funny how things stick in your mind, still sharp now, from so many decades ago.…
To Hold One’s Own
There is a stone from a shore at home that I carry with me wherever I travel. It has a hole through it, which makes it lucky, and it was given to me by my mother, which makes it precious.…