Greenland — so lovely this time of year.

How Green(land) was his valley

August 18, 2019

Imagine you are Greenland. You are a semiautonomous nation, part of Denmark, doing your Greenland thing with your clusters of colorful houses and glaciers and hot springs when suddenly you find yourself in the midst of a geopolitical controversy courtesy of President Donald J. Trump, who, in the words of one waggish poster on The Hill, is now up to the Louisiana Purchase in the manual on how to be el presidente.

Perhaps the president was thinking of Thomas Jefferson’s 1803 purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France, which doubled the United States, or the Alaska purchase of 1867 or President Harry Truman’s overture to buy Greenland for $100 million in gold in 1946 — yeah, I’m sure he was thinking of all of this — when he floated the idea of buying Greenland from Denmark.

Edward Moran’s “Unveiling of the Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World” (1886), oil on canvas. The J. Clarence Davies Collection, Museum of the City of New York. Originally gifted to America by France as a symbol of the preservation of the Union,… — Edward Moran’s “Unveiling of the Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World” (1886), oil on canvas. The J. Clarence Davies Collection, Museum of the City of New York. Originally gifted to America by France as a symbol of the preservation of the Union, Lady Liberty has come to represent a light to the hopeful — and hopeless — immigrants of the world.

A world of immigrants

July 4, 2019

As America celebrates its 243rd birthday today, we are reminded that we are a nation of immigrants — and yet that nation and that notion are both under siege. Squalor at detention camps at the border. A Washington state judge subsequently ruling that asylum seekers can’t be kept in detention indefinitely — a Trumpian policy that has created the crisis. President Donald J. Trump — so good at the trappings of America’s birthday, with his tanks in Washington D.C. and his speech at the Lincoln Memorial — defiying the Supreme Court ruling that bars a citizenship question on the U.S. Census.

The dramatically lit Aphrodite of Knidos — with her baby, Eros, sleeping at her side — in “The Countless Aspects of Beauty” exhibit at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, a feast for the sense. Photograph by the author.

Greek to us

June 27, 2019

“We’re not interested in Alexander I.”

That’s what one of my colleagues said to me about Alexander the Great (who was Alexander III, but no matter).

I thought about this as I returned to Greece recently on another “Legacy of Alexander the Great” tour, this time with The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Arrangements Abroad. I thought about this as we swept by plane from Thessaloniki — Greece’s second largest city, named for one of Alexander’s younger sisters — spitj to Athens, the capital, on a 12-day tour that included buscapades to many of the nation’s most important museums and archaeological sites.

The Avukana Buddha, a fifth century Sri Lankan work. The island nation’s serene beauty belies years of violence. Photograph by Carlos Delgado.

The dangers of an either/or world

April 25, 2019

In the aftermath of the bombings of Roman Catholic churches and upscale hotels in Sri Lanka, a poster on The New York Times website gave me pause. I don’t remember the substance of the post or whether it was by a man or a woman but I remember the last line: I choose safety over diversity.

Jean-Simon Berthélemy’s “Alexander Cuts the Gordian Knot” (1767), oil on canvas. École nationale superiéure des Beaux-Arts. Some say Alexander the Great saw where the knot was pinned and so released it; others, that he impatiently cut it with his sw… — Jean-Simon Berthélemy’s “Alexander Cuts the Gordian Knot” (1767), oil on canvas. École nationale superiéure des Beaux-Arts. Some say Alexander the Great saw where the knot was pinned and so released it; others, that he impatiently cut it with his sword. Either way, he fulfilled the prophecy that whoever unraveled the knot would become lord of Asia. Where’s an Alexander now to solve the United Kingdom’s tangled Brexit crisis?

Stay of (Brexit)cution

April 7, 2019

Brexit Day is now Oct. 31, the European Union granting the United Kingdom yet another stay of Brexit-cution, which was supposed to have taken place March 29 and then April 12. Let’s leave aside that Oct. 31 is Halloween. I don’t think the E.U. is ironic enough to have chosen that day for its gallows humor. And indeed Nov. 1 is the day the new president of the European Commission is set to take office, so presumably the E.U. needs to have this resolved by then. But will it be resolved?

Britain's long goodbye

March 20, 2019

Like the student or reporter who simply cannot meet a deadline, the United Kingdom will today ask the European Union for a short (three-month) extension to the March 29 deadline for its leave-taking from that organization. No, that’s not the right analogy. The British are like the soon-to-be-ex hubby, who needs to spend a few more months on your couch as he ponders his commitment to the woman he betrayed you with. How well does that end? The other 27 members of the E.U. must approve such a request. And they’re not inclined to a longer goodbye without a new game plan, which the Brits don’t seem to have. As Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte said, there’s really no point to the British “whining on for months.” Yes, quite.

The case of two American brides of ISIS fighters who want to come home has some of us remembering Edward Everett Hale’s tale of renunciation, remorse and redemption.

No country for young women

March 6, 2019

In Edward Everett Hale’s 1863 short story “The Man Without A Country,” treasonous Lt. Philip Nolan renounces the United States, getting his wish — never to hear about his native land again. But sailing the seven seas in a military ship as a kind of Flying Dutchman or Ancient Mariner, Nolan finds the country he relinquished is everywhere, because it is lodged in his mind and, ultimately, his heart. He dies, having composed this epitaph for himself: "In memory of PHILIP NOLAN, Lieutenant in the Army of the United States. He loved his country as no other man has loved her; but no man deserved less at her hands."

I thought of this when I read the story of two American women who married — and were abused by — ISIS fighters and now want to come back to the United States