an old writer and his words

  • NAME THAT

    It should be daunting, sittingin a waiting area in a gownthat is open in the back, the roomlike most all in such officesmore refrigerator than lounge.She smile and says “It’s your turn,we’ll do one, take another patientand then the other. Is that okay?”A nice question but it isn’t likeI have any real choice.The MRI tube…

    Lou Faber

  • IT’S GREEK TO ME

    They would deny it, of course,just as their progeny do today,but so many of the ills of this agecan be laid at the feet of the Greeks.Two of their inventions have led usinto the hellscape we call thisabnormal world in which we live.The first, of course, wasthe invention of politics, politikathe Greeks labeled it,and aloneit…

    Lou Faber

  • MY RABBI (PART 1)

    If you ask why I am a BuddhistI will tell you there are a myriadof possible reasons, choose one,or take this one, it fits nicely. I am in college, pulling my gradesup to mediocre, thoughts of medicinegone, law only faint on a distant horizona master’s degree away. I visit my childhood rabbi, a manwho has…

    Lou Faber

  • OLD HOTEL, NARA

    Stepping into the hotel, it was like being dropped into a truly alien world. Nothing shiny, no excess of glass and marble. A simple dark wooden reception desk, a clerk in black with a white vest. A bow upon approaching. Your room is simple, no internet, a single light on a small desk. A tatami…

    Lou Faber

  • A HELL OF A CHOICE

    But what if Heaven operateslike a restaurant, closedeach Monday, so you hadbetter die on Sunday, butthat doesn’t work becauseGod is resting and thereis no getting in on the sabbath. That leaves you five daysfrom which to chooseto die, but God also isthe ultimate physician,so Wednesdays the officeis closed, so that dayis out unless you canarrange…

    Lou Faber

  • THE OFFICE

    Step into a hotel elevatorand you will see the sign“Elevator certificate is locatedIn the General Manager’s Office.” If Einstein were to come backto life and see this, would heinquire as to where he could findthe Special Manager’s Office? And George S. Patton wouldno doubt bellow out a demandthat the Corporal Managerstand front and center. But…

    Lou Faber

  • READY, FIRE, AIM

    He should have knownthat the day was doomedfrom the moment he woketo see his alarm clock in pieceson the floor by his bed, the catgrinning at him from the placewhere the clock had always sat. Finally arriving at the office,he was no sooner at his deskwhen the fire alarm bell rang.Within moments of reenteringafter the…

    Lou Faber

  • VIOLIN

    We sat at the table, sucking the last of the djej from the bones piled along the edge of the platter. “I played for seven years” he said, “under Tilson-Thomas and later Rudel, bad years those, I sat two rows back second from the stage edge.” He was unremarkable, forgettable until he nestled the violin…

    Lou Faber

  • TOKYO MEMORIES

    1. An older, silver-haired woman in neon green pants, a brown blouse and black shop apron stoops and carefully scrubs the alleyway outside her small shop. 2. Salarymen fill the tunnels of Kokkai-gijidomae station at 6 P.M., 7, 8, and in fewer numbers, 9, shuffling down the long corridors to the Chiyoda or Marunouchi Line trains,…

    Lou Faber