Fourteen years ago I started doing something totally out of character, I began riding horses. Four years later I bought the horse who had been teaching me to ride, Baghera de Beaupré, a beautiful dark bay, Selle Français mare.

Recently, while on a trip to Istanbul, I fell and shattered my knee. I ended up having surgery there and, thanks to my husband’s Herculean efforts, am now back in the States coping with recovery.

I have been reading, and re-reading, Why the Middle Ages Matter, and I sense an underlying theme to several of the essays, namely the importance of community.