Opinion
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Dishwasher Dialogues: Switzerland
Christmas in Paris
By: - Aug 03rd, 2025Ever since my boarding school days in Vienna and going on school skiing trips, mountains mean snow and snow means cold. I was cold those four years in Vienna. To this day give me the Mediterranean heat.
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Diswasher Dialogues, Day of the Dead
El Dia de Los Muertos
By: - Jul 27th, 2025This feast of celebrating the dead––and death, of course too––was a good jab into my coddled heart, and a solid fuck-you-and-the-nag-you’re-riding aimed at the grim reaper. After the clients finally left way past closing time, the entire staff, all rather worse for fatigue and drink, sat down for our own special Halloween dinner.
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The Quiet Feast
Finding the Dao in Solitude
By: - Jul 22nd, 2025Laozi reminds us in the Tao Te Ching of the utility of emptiness: “We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.” A life cluttered with noise and perpetual engagement leaves no room for the spirit to reside
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The Dishwasher Dialogues: Rags
But Not Riches
By: - Jul 21st, 2025For an appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival of a play by Greg the set of painted rags was conceived by Rafael. It was cheap and easy to transport. Looking out over a mountain of rags, however, the audience consisted of a single individual. They attributed lack of success to their unflinching artistic integrity.
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The Dao of Push Hands
Cultivating Suppleness and Wisdom
By: - Jul 15th, 2025At its core, push hands is a two-person training drill designed to develop sensitivity, balance, and the ability to neutralize and issue force. Partners maintain continuous contact, typically at the wrists or forearms, and engage in a gentle yet focused exchange.
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The Dishwasher Dialogues: Les Droits de l'homme
Patriotism and Passports
By: - Jul 13th, 2025I always felt the simple visitor’s stamp on my passport gave me just enough right to live in Paris until the next visitor’s stamp. I never contemplated the idea of citizenship or even having a carte de travail.
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The Dishwasher Dialogues: Philosophy
Derrida, Wittgenstein and Love in Paris
By: - Jul 07th, 2025Stephen loved philosophy. I remember he and I arguing over Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations during the rehearsals for One Day in May. Well, it wasn’t so much an argument as me shouting ‘Wittgenstein, what do you know about Wittgenstein?’
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Americans in Paris 1970s
Dishwasher Dialogues
By: - Jun 29th, 2025Chez Haynes had a counterpoint, of sorts, in the American Center in Paris. Not only by virtue of it hosting jazz concerts in its heyday a decade earlier, but also because of its focus on experimental theatre, dance, and poetry and its welcoming of young writers and performers. The Center was down on my side of Paris, 261 Boulevard Raspail, not far from the Tour Montparnasse; back then a brand-new monolithic beast (which ended up saving Paris from further skyscraper assault).
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An Uncarved Block
Awareness of Being
By: - Jun 24th, 2025The pure awareness of being. You leave yourself behind, and become part of the whole of creation; leaving your ego behind, you simply are. Nothing to strive for, nothing to become, there is only presence. You simply are. No longer trapped in your mind, you can observe your thoughts, emotions and reactions without being swept away by them. You are not your thoughts, you are the observer of them.
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Sleeping with Rothko
From The Dishwasher Dialogues
By: - Jun 22nd, 2025The basics for writing are cheaper. I could hold them all and my five-box life in my arms at the same time. But then it would all simply be an exercise in self-entertainment or personal therapy. Somewhere along the line writing requires others. Readers for a start. Even if they are imagined. Then publishers would be a nice touch. Again, even if that is self-publishing.
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No King's Day USA
June 14, North Adams, MA
By: - Jun 18th, 202515 organizations and concerned citizens in the Berkshires hosted: Relay for Democracy; No Kings North Adams, Great Barrington, West Stockbridge and Pittsfield; and Projecting Democracy, from 8 in the morning until 11 pm at night. A very busy and important day!
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Paris The Dishwasher Dialogues
Sleeping with Rothko
By: - Jun 15th, 2025I recall you always taking photos of yourself in these photo booths, often with staff and friends from the restaurant. Or with whoever happened to be with you at the time. Whenever we were on the metro together, changing metro lines or exiting, you would see a booth and suddenly track straight toward it. A compulsion. In hindsight, it was a bit strange, given we had access to your darkroom.
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The Sage in the Green Mountains
Lessons from a Barefoot Doctor and a Seeker’s Journey
By: - Jun 06th, 2025I first encountered “Fourth Uncle on the Mountain” during a deeply formative period of my life – while living as a Daoist monk at a small temple nestled on a mountaintop in Hubei Province, China. My temple sister, Cheng Feng, and I loved this book and spent much time discussing it. She is Vietnamese and French, and felt a strong connection to Dr. Van Nguyen’s story.
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From The Dishwasher Dialogues
Leroy Haynes, Charles Bukowski and Simone De Beauvoir
By: - Jun 01st, 2025Leroy’s silent advice was always there, don’t get too comfy, son, life’s tough and it’s not going to get easier. Unlike Manhattan where I had previously lived, Paris, was not menacing. Never did I sense that there were places or quartiers where I shouldn’t venture.
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Harmony and Disharmony
Understanding Evil in Daoism
By: - May 27th, 2025Rather than focusing on inherent “evil,” Daoism often addresses what we might perceive as evil in terms of disharmony, imbalance, or deviation from the natural Way (Dao). Actions or situations perceived as evil often arise when individuals or systems operate out of alignment with the natural flow, driven by excessive desire, forced action, or unnatural striving (Wei).
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Berkshire Arts and Culture Alliance
Advocates for Economic, Tourism, and Infrastructure Needs
By: - May 27th, 2025The leaders of ten arts and culture institutions from across Berkshire County have convened the Berkshire Arts and Culture Alliance (BACA) to advocate for the economic, tourism, and infrastructure needs of arts and culture organizations in the county.
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The Dishwasher Dialogues, Paris, Two
Undocumented Getting a Real Job
By: - May 26th, 2025In the 1970s the artists Gregory Light and Rafael Mahdavi were undocumented living under the radar in Paris. They were paid in cash with tips by a friendly bistro. It was just enough to scrape by. This chapter of Dishwasher Dialogues recounts efforts to get “real jobs," secure mail boxes and bank accounts.
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From The Dishwasher Dialogues
Parisians Sans Haute Couture
By: - May 18th, 2025Down and out in Paris in the 1970s Greg LIght and Rafael Mahdavi scraped by as kitchen help at the popular and colorful Chez Haynes. Their self published book about their adventures of surviving down and out in Paris, Dishwasher Dialogues, has become a hit. That inspired them to post a weekly blog. We are launching them as our Parisian correspondents. This blast concerns how the homeless survive harsh winters.
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Finding Clarity in The Now
Taiji, Meditation, and the Art of Presence
By: - May 14th, 2025Practices like Taiji and meditation serve as invaluable anchors, gently guiding us back to this present awareness, offering a path to clarity, peace, and authentic living. The goal is to cultivate a state of present moment awareness where we engage fully with what is, unfiltered by the layers of judgment, expectation, and predisposition that so often cloud our perception.
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Trump Defunds MASS MoCA
Cancels Grant for Jeffrey Gibson Exhibition
By: - May 06th, 2025On Friday night, the National Endowment for the Arts sent MASS MoCA an email notification of the termination of our awarded grant for the support of Jeffrey Gibson’s commission POWER FULL BECAUSE WE’RE DIFFERENT.
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Beyond Belief
Freedom from Bitterness Through Knowing
By: - Apr 28th, 2025Moving beyond bitterness is not about forcing forgiveness or pretending the past didn’t happen. It is about recognizing where we are investing our energy. Are we feeding the rigid beliefs that keep the wound infected?
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The Mount 2025
Season Programs
By: - Apr 19th, 2025The Mount, Edith Wharton's Home, announces the full lineup of the 2025 Summer Author Series and In Conversation. This year, the series features an expanded roster of literary luminaries reflecting diverse disciplines and perspectives. Susan Wissler, The Mount’s executive director, shares, “For over three decades, The Mount has been a beacon for thought-provoking discussions, and this year is no exception. Inspired by Edith Wharton’s passion for ideas and love of good conversation, we invite the Berkshire community to join us for enriching talks and discussions with the literary giants and innovative thinkers shaping our world today."
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The Sweetness of Bitterness
Finding Meaning in Letting Go
By: - Apr 17th, 2025Laozi, in his timeless wisdom within the Tao Te Ching, presents a series of paradoxical statements that challenge our conventional understanding of how to achieve wholeness and fulfillment. Among these, the notion that embracing partiality, crookedness, emptiness, death, and surrender can lead to their opposites seems counterintuitive. Yet, within these inversions lies the profound truth about the human journey, particularly the “bitterness” of temple life to ultimately blossom into one of deep meaning.
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The Art of Yielding
Finding Strength in Suppleness (Part 2)
By: - Apr 02nd, 2025Compromise, another form of yielding, is essential for navigating the complexities of human interaction. By yielding on less important issues, we create space for finding common ground and achieving mutually beneficial outcomes. This approach avoids unnecessary conflict and preserves valuable relationships.
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Yielding with Strength
Bamboo as Metaphor
By: - Mar 18th, 2025In essence, yielding with strength is a practice of cultivating inner resilience. It is about developing the ability to adapt to change, to flow with the currents of life, and to find strength in suppleness. It is about recognizing that true power lies not in rigid control, but in the ability to yield, to adapt, and to flow.
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