My Chinese Name

Dear Friends,

When I was in Beijing a few years ago, my friends took me to have a personal name seal made by a "chop" carver. There was some discussion about which Chinese characters should be used, and I believe we finally settled on Ke-Li-Se or something like that. Now I wish I had asked what those characters represent in Chinese. I fear that they might mean something like "the one who carries the garbage out to the field" or "the village sex maniac". If there is a Chinese language specialist out there who can help me, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Yours truly,

A Walk in the Woods After the Snowstorm

Last Friday we drove out to the hermitage in a howling blizzard, with no visibility and icy conditions on the highway. Just as we got there the storm ended.


Winter has filled the woods and covered the lake with a thick blanket of snow.


The little god of the birdfeeder looked a little cold.


When the sun came out, so did the snowshoes.


And off we trudged into the forest.


The woods were lovely, dark and deep. (Thanks, Robert)


But we had promises to keep.

Twenty Years Later

(Drawing by A. Wysocki, 1974)
The next time I sat for a portrait was 20 years later, on the bench in front of the pear trees at the farmhouse of my spiritual mentor Michał Michalak in Kaszowo. This pen and ink drawing was done by Alfred right around the time he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. At this stage of my life I was 22 years old, had finished my B.A., had a 17 year-old girlfriend, and was spending the year contemplating what my next steps would be.