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Paul Schafer's musical reflection, which I shared with you yesterday, reminded me that some thirty-five years ago, with the advent of the writeable CD, I created as a holiday gift, LesChansons de ma vie, a collection of the songs which I felt had either shaped my life or accompanied me well throughout its vicissitudes. It was a new way of sending myself to my friends and inviting them to be with me, body and soul, ears and heart, however great the geography separating us. The obvious starting point is one of my all-time favorite balladeers, George Moustaki, heard here inviting friends, les amis,...

Unsplash photo by Mohammad Metri – https://unsplash.com/photos/1oKxSKSOowE What part does music play in the flow of our personal and cultural narratives? This question presses on me for reflection if not an answer since the beginning of this week when Paul Schafer, whom many of you may know from his books on culture, sent me a blog posting of musical reflection, complete with video inserts of music pivotal in his life. You can find and enjoy it here. Most of us too easily forget music in our work and lives as interculturalists, despite it's being all around us in so many cultural...

Docking of the Aquarius in Valencia Spain, migrants welcomed by children of the conquistadores As a member of the privileged white (on its way to becoming minority) citizenry of the USA, and male besides, even in my sense of social activism, I am uncomfortable with the accusation of "white privilege". Am I really the "little rich kid" somehow living off the fat of imputed ancestral exploitation of others. No one likes hearing accusations about one's heritage or one's self. Hearing it raises the temptation of debating it with stories of bias toward my own kind, with "fleeing from European oppression"...

My 1st, 2nd, & 3rd generation USA immigrant family 1936 – Polacks, Krauts, Wops, Micks, Kikes, Bohunks, Spics, etc.   There is a lot we would like to forget, not own up to in the fabrication of our national and patriotic identity story. But memories and memoirs are rife with hurts that house historians would like to deny, though the attitudes that created them and our reactions to them still lurk in the national DNA and surface in unconscious and conscious bias on a daily basis. Owning up to our sad side is a first step in creating the determination...