The dishes I make myself flavor my moods, and season my experience of the news. As my birth country and my host country cast blame on one another, I eat four-cheese pizza with a side dish of blanched cauliflower seasoned with soy sauce, vinegar, and extra chili oil. The day Trump moved to halt legal immigration into the U.S., I poured osmanthus-infused syrup over a steamed Chinese yam, tingeing the edges of my rage and despair with its bright floral sweetness. When police detained volunteers who archived censored articles about coronavirus, I threw too many bird’s eye chilies into a Read More
Month: June 2020
Words from a World Past?
… Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research…. Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society’s future, we — you and I, and our government — must avoid the impulse to live only for today, Read More