I can’t remember the last time I didn’t know who or what to vote for. “Undecided” is not a category I ever find myself in, at least not when it comes to politics. On June 13, however, Switzerland is voting on two initiatives that would force Swiss farmers to give up pesticide, and I don’tContinue reading “Telling Swiss Farmers What to Do”
Author Archives: Kim Hays
Newly Discovered: Belinda Bauer
I am a sucker for books with kids as heroes. Not smartass kids, not stagy kids—just kids. Maybe I never quite outgrew my favorite children’s books, or maybe my affection for Jem, Scout and Dill from To Kill a Mockingbird has had too strong an influence on me. In any case, if you, too, likeContinue reading “Newly Discovered: Belinda Bauer”
Happy Mother’s Day
It’s Mother’s Day. On June 8th of this year, my mother, Joy Neiter Kramer Hays, will have been dead for ten years. I wish I were celebrating the holiday by spending the day with her, and to make my happiness complete, I’ll include my sister Natasha in this fantasy as well. My mother loved NewContinue reading “Happy Mother’s Day”
Living with Guilt
In 1976, an American, Judith Guest, published a 263-page debut novel called Ordinary People. Robert Redford made it into a movie with Donald Sutherland in 1980, and it won the Oscar for Best Picture. I read the novel and saw the movie and was moved to tears by both of them. Of course, I stillContinue reading “Living with Guilt”
A Garden for the Dead
At the risk of seeming morbid, I wanted to return to my favorite place for walks, the Schosshalde Cemetery. On March 30th, I wrote about how most Swiss graves last for only twenty years, before they are filled with another generation’s coffins and urns. But I didn’t tell you how beautifully tended those temporary gravesContinue reading “A Garden for the Dead”
Diverging Lives
I can’t imagine there’s a single person who hasn’t at least once thought, “I wonder how my life would have turned out if I hadn’t done X.” It would seem pretty obvious that my “X” is my marriage to Peter and move to Bern, which happened when I was 33. Those two things have shapedContinue reading “Diverging Lives”
Ten Little Piggies Went to Market…or?
Every spring, at least one litter of piglets is born in the large enclosure for wild boars between the Aare river and the Dählhölzli forest. When I walked along the river path beside the zoo today, I joined the crowd of parents holding up small children to see the antics of ten tiny furred andContinue reading “Ten Little Piggies Went to Market…or?”
A Plate of Eggs
You don’t have to be religious to enjoy Easter. I’m not just thinking of the pleasures of chocolate eggs and fancy Easter breads or even, in Switzerland, the taste of a shoulder of baby goat roasted with potatoes and an Osterfladen, its buttery crust filled with almond- and lemon-flavored custard. I enjoy Easter becauseContinue reading “A Plate of Eggs”
Temporary Graves
Bern’s Schosshalde cemetery, a hilly expanse of grass, trees, flowering shrubs and pansies shaded by gravestones, is perfect for a quiet spring walk. A place of peace, with intimations of eternal rest. Right? Wrong! Twenty years. That’s how long these dead get to rest. And then, whoopsie-daisy, their rent runs out and their spot isContinue reading “Temporary Graves”
Benches on the Aare
London has the Thames, Paris the Seine, Cairo the Nile—and Bern has the Aare, snaking around the old town on its way from the Alps to the Rhine. Tens of thousands of people in the city of Bern live or work within fifteen minutes’ walk of the Aare. In my case, it’s more like fiveContinue reading “Benches on the Aare”
Kim Hays 