Hyde Park's Corner

I have a long and earnest interest in China. I have my reasons, good reasons, I believe. Part of it goes way back to my days of military se...

The U.S. army reportedly deployed a specialized "psychological operations" team to help convince American legislators to boost fu...

[In a recent discussion in my Chinese Art & History Group, I made a poorly framed statement that appeared to puzzle some. The simple, bu...

In recent correspondence, a friend offered some China news and a reflection about it: They just erected a 30 foot bronze statue of Confuciu...

Yesterday, Hu Jin Tao, President of the People's Republic of China, enjoyed being feted and heralded by American President Obama as lead...

Question: How do we best increase and prolong the highest functioning of the brain and intelligence? That's the basic question and mos...

If W.S. Merwin's singularly mindful and challenging verse served so well in bringing 2010 to a close, then Mary Oliver's touching s...

It's 2011, a new year, and I've concluded facebook just doesn't work for me. It felt wrong for me from the beginning, but it ha...

More from and about our poet laureate. "In the 1980s and 1990s, Merwin's writing influence derived from his interest in Buddhist p...

From Harvard Magazine: Acknowledging [Harvard psychology professor Matthew] Nock's expertise in understanding who is at risk for suicide...

It seems that Mary Oliver's heart goes before her, that she merely follows along--going where it leads her, sharing what it tells her. ...