Welcome, my friends! Bienvenue, mes amis! This page, Le Café, is where I hope we’ll congregate, sharing ideas and thoughts, among ourselves. Think of it as a sidewalk café in New York, my hometown or one of my favorite places in Paris—perhaps a bench under the chestnut trees near the Tuileries or one by the Seine—or a small spot on the cobblestones of Leiden.

Le Café is a celebration of words, sharing, and growth. Did you know that the human brain remains sufficiently flexible throughout life that conversation, new ideas, and reading literally change our minds, forging new neural connections no matter how old we are? How totally cool is that? Or, as they’d say in Paris, chouette.

Le Café is about growing from and through each other’s words, as we sip our tea or espresso, miles apart and perhaps even a continent or two, but still connected by the power of words and the sparks that great dialogues produce.

There are two parts to Le Café . First is the Moomemes section, where the memes I create (affectionately known as Moomemes) are posted for sharing, downloading, printing or whatever else suits your fancy. As you’ll see, sometimes I write the words and sometimes I celebrate the special insights of my readers. The second is Dialogues where we’ll thrash out the answers to whatever is on our collective minds.