Some of you might have seen the headlines: Spain is in a terrible mess. “La Crisis” is the combined effort of the masters of usury, incompetent "leaders," corrupt officials and the (so-called) European Union.It’s all coming home to roost and nobody knows what to do. Yes, it’s financial, political, and administrative, but those are merely the [...]
Today, May 15th, Madrid celebrates its patron saint, San Isidro. As an adopted "madrileño," it’s a big day for me. Not only because this town and this country has a deep significance for me as a Pilgrim. It is also because I find this saint so personal, and his low-key sainthood so attractive—in a similar [...]
Living in Spain, and in my case the old center of Madrid, allows me to indulge in a personal spiritual pleasure: the early morning Mass. Since the day here tends to end later than in America, we get out of bed a little later too. Office hours in general start at nine am or later. Early morning Mass in my [...]
Being a Swede in "exile," the other day I visited the Swedish embassy to renew my passport. I paid a rather significant amount of money to do so and they took my picture, one that, predictably, makes me look like a cross between Charles Manson and Breivik, the Norwegian murderer. Beforehand, I had a cup of coffee [...]
To my surprise, I have developed a sleeping disorder, a type of insomnia. I say “to my surprise” because there is no good reason why I shouldn’t sleep well. Never as an adult have I had so little to worry about, the usual explanation for such a thing. The last two years, in which I have [...]
It might come as a surprise to people outside of Spain, but this once so Catholic country is having a problem with Crucifixes. There has been debate for some time whether they should remain, as they sometimes are, hanging on walls in secular buildings, such as state schools. I must admit that, when I first heard of [...]
Most critics consider Bernard Fall’s book on the decisive French defeat at the battle of Dien Bien Phu the best that we have. It describes in detail the bloody event that ended France’s imperial adventure in Indochina and set the scene for American involvement in Vietnam. What made me notice it in a bookshop all those [...]
