My son turned fourteen last week, and his birthday promised to be one enormous letdown. The year before we had celebrated his Bar Mitzvah, marking this 13th birthday, in grand style.  He surprised the congregation with a hilarious yet meaningful speech about the commandment “Though shalt not covet,” complete with him riffing off the Bruno […]

After college, my friend Lisa and I packed two enormous duffel-bags full of our belongings and moved to Japan. One of my favorite attempts to absorb Japanese culture was bathing at the local onsen — a public bath complete with hot, medium and freezing tubs of water. There was even a pool with currents of electricity running through it.

My friend Ibrahima does not know which day or year he was born. He came into this world in Guinea, West Africa, where his native language N’Ko had no written form until very recently. To obtain a passport, he had to approximate how old he was and select a day that felt right to him.