Ascertaining the purpose of the personal dimensions of space — It was called “The Library”. It was a small upstairs bar with no windows but brightly lit like a friendlier version of a would-be cigar lounge for men if it weren’t for the allover more golden-colored wood-paneling and airy spaces with no obvious nooks for private men-talk. We’d been away…

My idealism railing against a young girl’s upbringing in a foreign country — She said that she didn’t ever want to be pregnant because she concluded that having children must be a nuisance, and there was this particular term that she used to announce this in her native language that further translates into ‘inconvenience’. She said that her mother told her that there…

Hindsight from 2020 and its forced re-examination of my national identity — The rite of passage for any American-born teen growing up schooled of the abomination of the Holocaust, significantly influenced by the celebrity and cultural trendsetters propagated in music, TV, and cinema of the 80’s and 90’s, besides the eccentricities of family and parental naturalization, was my already assumed privileged struggle…

An Independence Day 2021 Reflection — Sadly, you and I don’t have real freedom. My political scientist friend would be amused at our expense, as the term ‘freedom’ is an oxymoron. The freedom that most people aspire to have is in fact limited as well as difficult to ultimately perfect as it is inconsistent and bounded…

#FromOneLine №118 — was the passé phone days so bad? — So unless you’re grannie or grandpa, no one calls anymore? But it was the way we kept up a full conversation with just a single person at a time with our undivided attention. It also forced you to plan the call as it wasn’t mobile then. Now, too many social…

#FromOneLine №117 — what can you imagine with your nose? — Some restaurants are hard to enjoy because they don’t have the best ventilation especially while being a meat-grilling steakhouse or pit. I’ve been to my fair share of BBQ joints, Korean BBQs, Japanese Hibachi, Brazilian churrascuras, home BBQs which are all great in their own ways — with the right…

#FromOneLine №116 — Children are our hope for the future. We will not last. We pass on our wisdom, our knowledge, and our aspirations onto the next generation. At least that is what impression my grandparents gave to my parents and what impression my parents gave also onto their children. I feel a…

#FromOneLine №115 — Pen pals or writing to someone you’ve never met was a fun youthful pasttime. They were gals and guys I met through various events and we agreed to keep up with each other over pen and paper. Social media and even dating apps sort of do that for us now…

#FromOneLine №114 — There may be a tendency to believe that the best content is produced only when times are good, when we are in or at peace with ourselves and with our environment. But as a writer or an artist, that doesn’t always boat true. Great art seems to yield well even…