"…But we can perhaps remember--even if only for a time--that those who live with us are our brothers; that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek--as we do--nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can."

"...Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men. And surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again…”

Senator Edward M. Kennedy
St. Patrick's Cathedral
New York City
June 8, 1968

El Sueño Romántico de una Noche de Otoño

Echoing Light

When I was beginning to read I imagined
that bridges had something to do with birds
and with what seemed to be cages but I knew
that they were not cages it must have been autumn
with the dusty light flashing from the streetcar wires
and those orange places on fire in the pictures
and now indeed it is autumn the clear
days not far from the sea with a small wind nosing
over dry grass that yesterday was green
the empty corn standing trembling and a down
of ghost flowers veiling the ignored fields
and everywhere the colors I cannot take
my eyes from all of them red even the wide streams
red it is the season of migrants
flying at night feeling the turning earth
beneath them and I woke in the city hearing
the call notes of the plover then again and
again before I slept and here far downriver
flocking together echoing close to the shore
the longest bridges have opened their slender wings

~W.S.Merwin

*Images from Vogue fall editorial

Dream of the Red Chamber

Photos of Lin Miaoke's portrayal of young Lin Daiyu in a new television remake of the "Dream of the Red Chamber"

Dream of the Red Chamber is a three-volume work, sometimes translated into English as A Dream of Red Mansions. It is China's best-known novel.

This massive, sprawling novel of China was written in the mid-eighteenth century, during the Ching Dynasty, and has been widely read during the past two hundred years. Recently, it was made into a miniseries in China.

Tsao Hsueh-chin, the author of A Dream of Red Mansions, was born and raised in an aristocratic family, but he died in misery and isolation. From his own bitter, personal experiences, Tsao created a tragic love story between a young man, Chia Pao-yu, and a young woman, Lin Tai-yu, and, along with their love story, he described in careful detail the ups and downs of four leading aristocratic families: Chia, Shih, Wang, and Hsueh. It is through his precise description of the decline of these four families that we are given a deep and careful analysis and criticism of the Ching Dynasty's economics, politics, culture, education, law, ethics, religion, and marriage, focusing in particular on the social superstructure of the Ching Dynasty, China's last feudal dynasty.

This novel is, like life itself, extraordinarily rich. It depicts with artistic appeal and succinctness the hidden crises and various kinds of intricate social conflicts of the declining feudal society, while offering us many different characteristics of many different kinds of people. The novel has profound social significance and a high historical value. It is generally regarded as China's greatest novel.

Advice to Future American Idol Contestants

Maria Callas

All the intelligence and talent in the world can't make a singer. The voice is a wild thing. It can't be bred in captivity. It is a sport, like the silver fox. It happens. ~Willa Cather