Category Archives: Blog

Your thought concerns the skilled, the artist, the intellectual, the philosopher, the priest. Mine speaks of the loving and the affectionate, the sincere, the honest, the forthright, the kindly, and the martyr. Your thought advocates Judaism, Brahmanism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. In my thought there is only one universal religion, whose varied paths are but the fingers of the loving hand of the Supreme Being…

— Khalil Gibran

My friend and colleague, Marianne Barcellona, whose Egyptian-inspired artwork I’ve blogged about before, will be speaking tomorrow on a panel about her involvement in the Soho art scene in the early 1970s…

The first time I stepped into a facility for developmentally disabled adults in Rhode Island to teach a creative writing workshop, I was surprised to find that the facility was, in fact, a jewelry making factory. When I asked the writers in the workshop about their manual labor in the facility, they told me that they took great pride in their work–and enjoyed being around other people. But when they told me how much money they were making, I was shocked–and couldn’t believe that such low wages were legal.

Yesterday, however, all that changed–when the Department of Justice announced a “landmark” agreement with Rhode Island to overhaul all of the state’s facility-based adult day programs for people with developmental disabilities. The DOJ found that the people working in these facilities were earning on average just $2.21 an hour.

According to the settlement agreement, which is intended to serve as a blueprint for the rest of the nation, people with developmental disabilities will be moved from segregated facilities to mainstream work environments, and the state will place them in jobs which pay at least minimum wage. I’m so happy that my old friends in Rhode Island–who taught me a great deal about language and creative expression–will finally be getting the justice and wages they so rightly deserve…

This week in Beirut, my students and I are analyzing the architectural features of several ancient temples in Sudan. Fortunately, when I was excavating there this winter, I photographed a number of temples, pyramids, and tombs…

After spending the morning with young Syrian refugees, I took a stroll on the Mediterranean to decompress…

Many are the places of worship,
but few indeed are those who worship in Spirit and in truth…

— Khalil Gibran

When I wrote an Op-Ed for the Christian Science Monitor last year on the Syrian shrine of Sayeda Zeineb (a granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad), the shrine wasn’t receiving much coverage–but today, it’s front page news. To read today’s article in the NYTimes on this venerated (and endangered) shrine, please click here.

When I was studying Russian in St. Petersburg, I visited the northernmost Buddhist temple in the world. After I photographed the interior of the temple, I was invited to sit with a woman from Siberia–who said the temple was built in the early 20th century by Siberian monks from Buryatia. Since then, I’ve been interested in Buddhism in Russia–and wish I could catch this stimulating talk at Columbia next week.

Caught Between the Empires: Tibetan Buddhism in Russia and the Qing State
A presentation by Nikolay Tsyrempilov
Columbia University (SIPA Room 918)
April 15, 6pm

The talk will touch on the issues of comparative empire studies, religious policies implemented by the Romanovs and Qing, colonization strategies, imperial bureaucracy and religious migrations. The main focus will be on the Buriats, a small indigenous ethnic and religious minority inhabiting the area around Lake Baikal. Buriat history has traditionally been studied within the context of Russian history, but I argue that thorough analysis of the history of frontier peoples like the Buriats is only possible if we consider their history in the context of imperial macrosystems, to use here the term of Alexei Miller. In this context a case study of peoples whose social structure and religious infrastructure overlapped as contiguous empires can be revealing. It is assumed also that the comparison of Tibetan Buddhist institutions in the Russian and Qing empires that had a common origin, interacted extensively, and had many parallels, can tell us more about the nature of these empires.

I started off my morning with some karaoke in Chinese class. It’s an effective (and fun) way to practice a language…

Once, as I was burying one of my dead selves, the grave-digger came by and said to me, “Of all those who come here to bury, you alone I like.”

Said I, “You please me exceedingly, but why do you like me?”

“Because,” said he, “They come weeping and go weeping–you only come laughing and go laughing.”

— Khalil Gibran

Showfolk
Tribeca Film Festival
April 19th-27th

For seven Hollywood golden-era veterans with a combined age of 662, the show goes on. From a Vaudeville comedian still working at 100 to the stunning siren who dated Ronald Reagan when he was a Democrat, these showfolk, all living at the motion picture and television fund home in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles, share wisdom and inspiration garnered over seven lifetimes in the business.

For more information, please click here.

Since my Egyptology students and I are currently focusing on the historical connections between the regions known today as Lebanon and Sudan, I’ll be posting a number of photos this week from my archaeological work in Sudan…