Stories,photos

131 results total, viewing 51 - 60

Lag B’Omer: A bonfire of memory in my heart

We Jews have our own May Day holiday, which is celebrated with a bonfire. This Lag B’Omer ritual has a number of interpretations; figure out your own favorite. Are the … more

Mike Fink | 4/30/20

Cousin Joel – gone, but not forgotten

“Please call me: I have something to tell you about your cousin Joel.” came upon this voice mail in my office at the Rhode Island School of Design, which serves as a sociable salon for student conferences, colleague conversations, and, mostly and primarily, the home for my vast collection of memorabilia from past classes, and books, and photographs. more

Mike Fink | 4/5/20

Accidental wonders in our own backyard

My neighbor Amy , who two decades ago purchased the house where my grandparents and aunts and uncles had dwelt, is a great hostess in all seasons, even mid-winter. She has a tree, a Norway … more

Mike Fink | 3/8/20

In our chemically altered landscape, signs of Eden

“Privilege.” What does it mean? The help at Frenchman’s Creek – a manicured and gated community in Florida’s Palm Beach – come from such … more

Mike Fink | 2/6/20

The artistry of making the best of what’s left

Janus was the two-faced divinity of ancient Rome, facing backward and forward. The past and future, left and right profile, double homily and divided. If someone is described as … more

Mike Fink | 1/8/20

The years come and go, but Mom endures in my thoughts and being

I was born in the month of Sagittarius: I am a centaur, half horse, half archer, aiming high. I get the horse half from my mom, Betty C. Fink: she loved to draw and sculpt equine … more

Mike Fink | 12/9/19

A little less ‘progress’ would do us a world of good

Our collective human problem is not how to save the planet for us ... but rather from us! We must back off from “civilizing” the poor troubled planet, and leave some space to … more

Mike Fink | 10/31/19

Friends from Yale days (left to right): Joel, Jim and the writer.

Friends once and forever

They were my Yale classmates and roommates long, long ago. I took the train to New Haven for a trio reunion/rendezvous on a fine fall day, with egrets on the blue water under the azure … more

Mike Fink | 10/2/19

Snapshot of the magical frog in the pond behind the inn in Vermont.

As time goes by – a look in both directions

Almost like the other new year on the secular calendar, we look backward as well as forward in the “What I did this summer” back-to-school essay assignment. We drove … more

Mike Fink | 9/13/19

From a Caribbean island to Rhode Island, ties that bind

I’d been planning my pilgrimage to the place where patriotism was born and bred: the bleak, black isle of Sint Eustatius. “Don’t go there, there’s nowhere to swim, nothing to see, nothing to do,” advised a pair of sophisticated travelers I sometimes see at the pool at the local Marriott. “Cruise ships avoid it altogether,” they claimed. more

Mike Fink | 8/1/19