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The Muffled Voice: When Writing Becomes a Performance

I once wrote on my blog about wanting my voice to be a star in the vast writing cosmos—wondering if, across the reaches of space and time, some distant reader might eventually catch its light like stardust drifting from a long-dead past. It was a romantic, pure vision of connection. But a strange thing happensContinue reading “The Muffled Voice: When Writing Becomes a Performance”

Odysseus Wasn’t a Macho Hero—And That’s Why He Survived

(This is a classic, evocative painting depicting Odysseus tied to the mast as he listens to the Sirens, capturing the exact tension between heroic vulnerability, temptation, and the power of the female figures who shaped his journey.) “The epic 2,800-year-old poem – now adapted for the big screen – is so much more than aContinue reading “Odysseus Wasn’t a Macho Hero—And That’s Why He Survived”

Where Our Tides Once Began

When I retired eight years ago, I did not expect nostalgia to arrive so quietly. Retirement felt like the turning of an era. For decades, work structured my days and quietly defined who I was. Then suddenly, that chapter closed. I would not say I felt old exactly — but I became aware that IContinue reading “Where Our Tides Once Began”

What Remains, What Passes

A short story I It was in one of those days when, in his dreams, Benny came home and Jimmy, his elder brother, was standing at the doorway and opened the gate for him. The amber light drew him in, its glow falling across an array of familiar things — objects all jumbled together blurredContinue reading “What Remains, What Passes”

What Is Nirvana? What Is Buddhahood?

Nirvana, or Buddhahood, cannot be fully comprehended through concepts, language, or ordinary thought. Words function within the realm of distinctions—self and other, existence and non-existence, birth and death. Buddhahood, however, transcends such dualities. Therefore, any attempt to define it as we define ordinary experiences will inevitably fall short. It is especially misleading to think ofContinue reading “What Is Nirvana? What Is Buddhahood?”

What Remains When Nothing Stays

There are moments — usually the quiet ones, never during the daily grind — when a strange kind of clarity slips in. It’s like the world loosens its grip for a second, and you suddenly see your life from a slight distance. Not dramatically. Just… clearly. For me, it often starts with a memory. SometimesContinue reading “What Remains When Nothing Stays”

Between Fate and Freedom — on Living with Regret

Regret has a way of arriving uninvited, often disguised as a simple question: could things have been otherwise? Of course, I have regrets. I find myself, at times, drifting into thoughts of the life—or even the lives—that might have been. And yet, there is something strangely futile about that exercise. Our lives unfold within theContinue reading “Between Fate and Freedom — on Living with Regret”

A Monarch Above Politics: The Deeper Significance of King Charles’s Visit to the United States

King Charles III’s visit to the United States, and particularly his address to Congress, was far more than a ceremonial occasion. It was a moment of quiet but consequential diplomacy—one that demonstrated the unique role a constitutional monarch can play in turbulent times. At a moment when democratic norms are under strain and the internationalContinue reading “A Monarch Above Politics: The Deeper Significance of King Charles’s Visit to the United States”

Grief, Rituals and the Deepening of Time

Grief arrives quietly at first, like a shift in the air, and then all at once it changes the texture of our days. In the immediate aftermath of loss, the world feels strangely suspended: familiar routines lose their meaning, and time seems to move with a weight we cannot quite name. We search for somethingContinue reading “Grief, Rituals and the Deepening of Time”

Would the End of US Matter?

So here is a more unsettling question: if life is, at its core, absurd, would the extinction of humankind really deserve our grief? One might be tempted to say no. After all, we rarely mourn what we believe has no lasting purpose; we let it fade without ceremony. But the thought refuses to settle soContinue reading “Would the End of US Matter?”