Books alone launched my mind on a voyage beyond the vistas of New England when I was a junior high student. Back then, reading Phyllis A. Whitney’s YA novels set in Japan and Istanbul whet my appetite for the first time to glimpse the outside world. Before that, I’d encountered Anne Shirley’s Prince Edward Island…
Nobody in Chile wants to be ordinary. To call a person “ordinaria” is considered an insult…as if being an average Juan or Juanita is somehow vulgar—an unfortunate assignment to a low-class fate. “Pan de cada día”—everyday bread—is how we reference something ordinary and commonplace here. And we should know, because our staple food isn’t rice…
Yes, that’s right—on this International Women’s Day, I’m looking for some older women in my life. With only two blood relatives in that category—God bless them—I need a few more to call “aunt.” Everybody does! Do you mind? Oh, does it make you feel old? Or you don’t want to make me to feel too…
