Letter from Europe: Knocking on Heaven’s Door

*** BERLIN—Easter is still a big deal in Europe. Unlike the mere long weekend observed in North America, in Germany the Easter holiday that falls during the first weeks of April stretches into a two-week early spring sabbattical that runs to mid-month: the schools close; those who are able to, get out of town for a few days; and the work pace agreeably slows, especially when, as this year, the temperatures reach the 20s. If you’re of a mind to indulge in an appropriately theological long weekend,... 
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Angkor Wat

I I’m a more-than-reluctant traveller. I have no desire to go anywhere. I just want to sit at my desk in Vancouver and read and write. Walking up to my local supermarket on 4th Avenue is my idea of a big adventure. Yet, again and again, I’ve gone to the ends of the earth, as if possessed by an ancestral gene of the Wandering Jew. I never intend to go, since, as I say, I have no desire to go anywhere. So, how to account for my presence at various times, over many years, in Gdansk, Berlin, Tirana,... 
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