Second Acts is a series of interviews with interesting people who discovered new pathways midway through their lives. I discovered Rita Golden Gelman when a friend sent me a copy of her book Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World (Broadway Books, 2002). It is her account of how, on the verge of a divorce, she shunned convention, sold…
I remember hearing it all the time when I was growing up in West Roxbury, a suburb of Boston—“Why don’t you go out and play?” The fact is, I never really wanted to. I wanted to stay in my room and read. Or watch TV. When I was old enough to take the T into Boston to go to the…
Last winter I received a letter from an American friend living in Saudi Arabia, who spoke about the monotony of the colors in the desert landscape. I had complained to her about the lack of color in a New York State winter: browns, grays, little green, dull light, and cold. I started thinking about a trip I’d taken years ago…
