Monthly Archives: January 2020

On Fate and Writing

Posted on January 26, 2020 by Joel D. Hirst

I once wandered Paris in the spring. It was chill and I was alone, the drizzle fell upon me as I walked along the Seine from Rue de Mars and on toward where the Notre Dame stood. I walked in … Continue reading →

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Humanity’s Apogee – And What’s Next

Posted on January 23, 2020 by Joel D. Hirst

It’s a strange time we’re living in. By any accounts, humanity is enjoying its glorious apogee. Using any measure, we are at our best moment. Famine has been mostly ended (in 2016 we had an unprecedented four: Nigeria, Yemen, South … Continue reading →

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My Forest in Nicaragua

Posted on January 20, 2020 by Joel D. Hirst

There is a small copse in the highlands of Nicaragua where the sparrows play. “They are still there,” I was told on my last visit, “the trees are.” Granted that was a decade ago now. “They call it Hurricane Forest” … Continue reading →

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Decisive Moments in History

Posted on January 18, 2020 by Joel D. Hirst

The stories that make up the history of mankind are written by people. We are not the playthings of the gods; nor is anything preordained, predestined or inevitable. Every great and wicked advance in our story results from the action … Continue reading →

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“The Ghost of Freedom” – A Book Review

Posted on January 13, 2020 by Joel D. Hirst

The stories that shaped the Caucasus are as ancient as language; water flowing evenly over mountains jagged and dangerous home to highland people who are as enigmatic as they are enthralling, their history deposited as olden pebbles in a river … Continue reading →

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“Two Popes”

Posted on January 9, 2020 by Joel D. Hirst

Once when I was a little boy, growing up in the highlands of northwestern Argentina my little town received a visitor: a pope. The military junta was in its final tragic burst of power before sputtering out, pinning its hopes … Continue reading →

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“Ordeal – 1918” by Alexei Tolstoy, a Book Review

Posted on January 4, 2020 by Joel D. Hirst

Americans are not very much acquainted with Russia’s Civil War. When we study communism we often think there was a clean break; Tzar Nicholas abdicates, Lenin takes over, USSR is born. Truth of the matter is the process was much … Continue reading →

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