Moonlight peered through the dense cedar forest as the sound of night owls swept over some 200,000 graves spread across the forest floor. Granite tomb stones, from the simple to the ornate, cast shadows across the path.
It was Christmas night 2018 and I walked alone through the 1,200-year-old Okunoin cemetery in Koyo-san, Japan - the island nation's largest cemetery. It was an evening …
Articles
Factious Tempers
Let’s start with the fact Netflix’s Derry Girls is bloody brilliant. Following a group of adolescent girls growing up during the 1990s Northern Ireland Troubles, in some ways the show is an Irish Catholic version of Mean Girls. From top class cursing to the merciless ridicule of James, the show taps all of my dark humor happy places. But we’ll come back to Derry Girls in a bit. Because in …
Moral Nerve
Leadership
Thanksgiving night, after we packed up the leftover turkey for the dozen family members we hosted, I collapsed onto the couch with a glass of Vahali Vineyards Petite Syrah.
We wandered over to Netflix and clicked on “The Center Will Not Hold,” the 2017 Joan Didion documentary directed by her nephew Griffin Dunne. I …
More than I could ever imagine
The memories fall into stacks. Distinct piles of experiences where I watched, listened to and, eventually, began to understand Dad.
We grew up in Salinas, California, where Mom and Dad built their American Dream: A thriving physical therapy practice led by Pakistani immigrants in a community with few Pakistanis. Every summer, as I helped out, folding towels, cleaning up, I saw it was …
Thank you for the invitation
It is a weird thing leaving a job you love.
After 18 years in the immigration movement, 14 of them leading the Forum, I suppose I should share lessons learned, tout accomplishments, offer a critique of the moment we face.
That’s not where my head is.
Instead, I find myself going back to moments that inspired me:
That late night in 2005 at the …