Author Archives: Barbara

A Case of the Human Condition: How Do I Mother My Twenty-Somethings? The Same Way I Mothered My Ten-Year-Olds - With Overkill

Christina hadn’t called. We had dropped her at the airport hours ago. The flight to Burbank takes only seventy minutes. She should be home by now. But Jon and I still hadn’t gotten the, “I’m home. The plane didn’t crash. My roommate remembered to pick me up, and we didn’t get mugged in the garage,” phone call.

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A Case of the Human Condition: Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder - But What If There’s No Beholder?

A flowering tree grows hidden in the canyon below our house. If no one sees it bloom, is it beautiful? Without a beholder, can there be beauty?

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Book Openers: Georgetown Professor John Esposito on the Future of Islam

Georgetown professor John L. Esposito was working on a book about the future of Islam — pre-9/11. He promptly put it aside in favor of more immediate topics. And now, nearly a decade later, he returns to his subject with the publication of “The Future of Islam.”

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The Writing Room: My Idea of a Good Time — A Week in the Mountains with a Bunch of Other Writers

I’ve attended the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley summer conference three different times and loved every moment. It’s a great chance to meet writers, editors, agents — and work on your writing.

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God’s Big Blog: What a Billion Muslims Really Think

The Bay Area premiere of “Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think” will be screened at 5 p.m., Saturday, February 20, at the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California in Oakland. Also speaking: John Esposito, Professor of Religion and International Affairs at Georgetown University and author of “The Future of Islam.”

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