Oh, I see! moments
Travel Cultures Language

Mexican Culture: Moments of Note in Miniature

by Sheron Long on September 24, 2014

Miniature diorama of a harvest celebration opens a window into Mexican culture. (Image © Sheron Long)

Harvest diorama
© Sheron Long

How Long Can a Summer in Mexico Last?

A lifetime. When you step into another culture, rarely do you leave without life-changing, long-lasting experiences.

Certainly, that was the case during the summer I spent studying abroad in Mexico. One day, I stopped to admire this tiny scene of a harvest celebration—

the corn stalks scratching the sky,

the central beast of burden,

families thankful for the bounty of the crop.

I bought the miniature scene for the beauty of the Mexican folk art, but I came to love it for the thankful moment it symbolizes. A moment of note.

Cannery Row Catalysts: John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts

by Meredith Mullins on September 1, 2014

B&W photo of Ed Ricketts at the Pacific Biological Laboratories on Cannery Row, creative inspiration for John Steinbeck.

Ed Ricketts at his lab on Cannery Row
© Pat Hathaway Collection/www.caviews.com

Creative Inspiration among Friends

We should all be so lucky to have a friend, a creative inspiration, like Ed Ricketts.

John Steinbeck said that “knowing Ed Ricketts was instant.”

After the first moment, I knew him; and for the next eighteen years I knew him better than I knew anyone. 

They were best friends. They fed each other ideas. They told each other truths. The jolted each other beyond the boundaries of the ordinary. They refreshed each other.

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