Essays on becoming Chris Barclay
Căușeni | April, 1993 It’s the morning of Blajini—a family picnic with the dead. Relatives have come to the cemetery in their visiting colors: pressed trousers, a good jacket, a bright head scarf and embroidered apron for the women. Knotted red and white memorial towels flutter from wooden crosses on new graves. The recently bereaved […]
Continue ReadingOctober 27, 1983 — Shanxi, People’s Republic of China Deputy Director Guo is waiting in line to use the phone. It’s the third time this week he’s tried to reach Division Chief Deng at the Municipal Commerce Bureau in Taiyuan. The last two times Deng was in a meeting and despite the written messages left […]
Continue ReadingHow Can We Know That It Is Not a Blessing? April 20, 1957 On Saturday, at 11:30 in the morning, Mr. Unoki discovered that his cat was missing. It was not officially his cat. It was probably what you would call a stray, though he was its caretaker. His supervisor, Mr. Okamura, did not approve […]
Continue ReadingTuesday, November 14th 1961 6:42 pm Arthur Rosenfeld, a rising star actuary from Passaic Valley Mutual & Indemnity Insurers has a dental emergency. A cracked lower bicuspid, to be precise. It occurs over dinner as he bites down on an errant shard of bone in his wife Judith’s beef stew, exposing the nerve and causing […]
Continue ReadingLet me start with kale. Nobody actually likes kale. This is not a controversial statement. Kale is bitter, fibrous, and unsexy. And yet there it is, on menus, in smoothies, cunningly tucked into every grain bowl. People eat kale not because it brings them joy, but because someone told them it was good for them. […]
Continue ReadingIt’s the Winter of 2017 and I’m sitting on the sofa with my five year-old daughter, Hannah, watching WALL-E. It’s one of the first movies I remember being as equally entertaining for kids and parents. For those who haven’t seen it, the story portrays a moving bond between robots WALL-E and EVE in their quest to […]
Continue ReadingThe first thing I thought about in designing the approach to this private member’s club in Chiang Mai Thailand was, I wanted people to feel lost. When you feel lost, you seek to find your way through a novel process of inquiry. There can also be an unease that causes you to question your judgment […]
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