Charles van Heck's Woodhull Journal

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  • Postcards from Taiwan: Three Poems

    Wanderers on the Narrow Path In the morning solitude Sunflowers lift their heads Serenely towards the ascending light. I too wander on the narrow path To where the sun descends beyond the Yu Shan Mountains. In the morning solitude Walking… Continue reading

  • Dreams and Expectations

    Tomorrow morning, I will be giving the D’var Torah (a sermon) on Genesis chapters 25:19-28:9. I am honored to have been asked. Below is the text. Derasha: Tol’dot, 22 November 2025 The words of the Torah are like fragments of… Continue reading

  • Breaking Up Is Hard to Do?

    By Carl A. Ten Hoopen Things happened quickly and quietly. Unexpectedly? The answer to that question depends on who you ask. Only their closest friends caught the star quarterback’s drifting attention. His head-cheerleader girlfriend seemed to be flirting with somebody… Continue reading

  • 11 November, Part Three: The Reverberating Gunshot

    “’Some damned foolish thing in the Balkans,” Bismarck predicted would ignite the next war. The assassination of the Austrian heir apparent, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, by Serbian nationalists on June 28, 1914, satisfied his condition.’” So wrote Barbara W. Tuchman in… Continue reading

  • 11 November, Part Two: Oath and Loyalty

    On Tuesday, 30 September, the U.S. senior military leadership gathered at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, to hear Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump deliver remarks. The meeting struck both civilian and military personnel as rather odd.… Continue reading

  • 11 November, Part One: The Music of Memory

    11 November has traditionally been a day of reflection for me. This is the day I pause to remember the end of the First World War, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Three classical music… Continue reading

  • Sundance and the Search for an Alternative Education

    The arrival of autumn brings out the bookish aspect of my nature. The responsibilities for coursework found in freshly printed syllabi, the necessity of meeting a professor’s deadlines, revising lectures, and meeting new students have long passed for me. I… Continue reading

  • Random Thoughts: Gibson, Parkinson’s, Space Mirrors, Skunks, and Words

    Thirty-seven years ago, on 15 October, Kirk Gibson stepped up to home plate in Dodger Stadium in Game 1 of the World Series between the Dodgers and the Oakland Athletics. He was suffering from a swollen, shredded ligament in his… Continue reading

  • A Baker’s Tale

    Take an early morning walk down Evoraberg’s Main Street when the only stoplight in town is flashing yellow. The glow of street lights create haloes on the road. Darkened storefront display windows stare empty-eyed as if in a trance. A… Continue reading

  • Remembering Susan

    I fell in love with her voice.  A raspy voice, the type of voice that made me want to pull up a chair at the kitchen table. “Have some cranberry relish,” she might be saying, as she did every Thanksgiving.… Continue reading