Letter from Away — July 28, 2022 I started this column at a rectangular formica-topped table in air-conditioned the living room of the apartment house where I live. I almost said “in my apartment house” but I don’t own the building, except in the way that being a citizen entitles…

Letter from Away — July 21, 2022 Last week a friend took me out to dinner. I had done her a favor and she wanted to thank me by sharing a nice meal with me and another guest. The third member of our party was tired after a long day…

Letter from Away — July 14, 2022 I spent last weekend in the sometimes-greater Boston area, visiting relatives and friends. Such visits have long been cause for many hugs and kisses. In the past, before fear of contamination and a more clear setting of personal boundaries prevailed, visits among friends…

Letter from Away — July 7, 2022 A photography darkroom is a magical place. Smelling of strange chemicals and suffused in either total darkness or a dim red light, it is a place where images rise from white paper to reveal what has been previously seen. The darkroom allows for…

Letter from Away — June 30, 2022 It is a beautiful sunny day, early in the summer. A few days ago I woke up at 5:00 am, picked up a friend, and drove to Somerville to harvest strawberries. I have been picking my own organic strawberries at Sand Hill Farm…

Letter from Away — June 23, 2022 When I was six years old, my mother enrolled me in ballet classes. The teacher was a man named Paul, who taught us the positions of the arms and legs, how to make a plié, how to count the beats in the music…

Letter from Away — June 9, 2022 I have been trying to stay out of local politics since restarting Letter from Away, a couple of years ago. For one thing, I’ve been moving from one municipality to another and, not liking to meddle to much in my neighbors business, and…

Letter from Away — June 2, 2022 Driving to Vermont last week, I thought I would write about this phenomenon everyone is calling inflation. Between Thomaston Maine and Southern Vermont, I enjoyed the scenery at the pace of roadwork, zooming along at 70 miles per hour and then, intermittenty dropping…

Letter From Away — May 19, 2022 It was bound to happen. No matter how exceptional I think I am, no matter how careful we have all been for the first two years of this pandemic, over the last few months it has become clear that some variety of Covid…