ESSAY: About Face(book)

ESSAY: About Face(book)

  By Tom Robotham A strange thing happened to me a couple of months ago: I woke up one day and had no desire to open Facebook.  For many people, that wouldn’t be noteworthy. I have a number of friends who rarely look at the site. But for me it was significant....
ESSAY: About Face(book)

ESSAY: The Call of the Mountains

  By Tom Robotham In the woods…a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson The older I get, the more I appreciate the approach of springtime. It is heartening, as I sit here on a...
ESSAY: About Face(book)

Prologues to What is Possible

  By Tom Robotham  I dwell in Possibility / A fairer House than Prose – Emily Dickinson  On January 20, I turned on CNN first thing in the morning to watch the long hoped for departure of Donald Trump. As he flew away I was overwhelmed by a sense of relief. The...
ESSAY: About Face(book)

The Road Not Taken 

By Tom Robotham Thirty years ago this month, I moved from New York City to Norfolk. When I told my friends and co-workers of my plans, they thought I was nuts. One senior executive at Hearst Magazines, where I was working at the time, went so far as to call me a...
Practicing

Practicing

(Tom Robotham — on the left — has been perfecting his French with Duolingo so he can better converse in the future with local Parisians like this street vendor selling books and art along the River Seine) By Tom Robotham  J’apprends Français. Well, a...
ESSAY: About Face(book)

Now What?

BY TOM ROBOTHAM On the morning of Nov. 7, I was watching CNN, fervently hoping that they would finally call the election in Joe Biden’s favor. When they did, at 11:26 a.m., I let out a whoop that was likely heard throughout West Ghent. Van Jones—a CNN commentator whom...