![](https://theamericanmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/HENRY-LEDE-e1572557818733.jpg)
The man who wasn’t there
Emmanuel Mbasha was a proud member of the Chagga tribe and came from the Machame district of Tanzania, at the [...]
![Still a fashionable habit.](https://theamericanmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/article_5514_yK327lSPNp.jpg)
![A way of keeping tabs on the departed.](https://theamericanmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/article_5497_KVzJIX5Mc8.jpg)
The existential piazza
I stand several paces outside my northern town's post office gazing at the funeral notices, or necrology, plastered onto a [...]
![Being an "adult" can be a learning experience.](https://theamericanmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/article_5454_lSLq9ZFAug.jpg)
![](https://theamericanmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/zz-1.jpg)
Dances with sleep
An array of memories, impressions, and sensations; a flux of things you've been told, heard, overheard, read, experienced, and seen [...]
![](https://theamericanmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/yyy.jpg)
Tale of two trips
I recently traveled to London just short of my 28th birthday. The first time I visited the British capital I [...]
![](https://theamericanmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/xx.jpg)
Friends 4ever
Girlfriends can be a woman's best friends — until a man spikes the punch.
![Rushing to kiss Tebaldi's hand.](https://theamericanmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/article_5401_7X.jpg)
Opera in the blood
In a chest, an author finds a family lineage of devotion to opera — and the past comes alive.
![A craving for mealworms and strawberries.](https://theamericanmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/article_5374_4ACHnPN3Qz.jpg)
Farewell to Drew
It's too bad pet turtles can't write because they get to see the wide acres of a human lifetime.
![A rustic return.](https://theamericanmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/article_5373_qiPRaKxLp9.jpg)
Four dogs and a fire
Coming home at night to a rural home can give the past a second wind, but let it be a short one.
![Some neighborhoods went untouched.](https://theamericanmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/article_5352_tG7odqRe5b.jpg)
At home with the McKenzies
Being anointed "cultural advisor" to 19 visiting American college students can make for a class of its own.