that Staten Island could be quite so very different. Not different in a bad way. There's something strangely exciting about its difference, like the wonder of discovering unspoiled Ramnagar just across from Varanasi.In a few days, by the way, I'm going for a serious 気分転換: a meditation retreat at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA. So if I disappear from the blogosphere for ten days, rest assured that it's only transitory. (In fact I imagine the first days of silent meditation will be like being stuck in an endless web of internal blogs.) But first I'll be visiting a dear friend from graduate school near Worcester, so I won't take my leave just yet.
