A summary of the March posts from the MORE TO COME newsletter.
(NOTE: If you are reading this post via email, click on the title to see the online version, so you can read the entire poem included here.)
March is my favorite month.
This is the time of year that begins my annual trip around the sun. Birthday celebrations and best wishes from family and friends spark many happy memories. But they also bring to mind special remembrances of Mom and Dad. That’s where all the love began.
Then I’ve always appreciated the fact that our anniversary arrives on or around the spring equinox. Light overtakes darkness, new possibilities abound, the cherry blossoms explode, and after a period of wintering all seems bright and exuberant. That seems appropriate for the celebration of a marriage, whether in its first year or its 44th.
Finally, baseball season begins in March. Bart Giamatti—PhD professor in comparative literature, president of Yale University, commissioner of baseball, and a lifelong fan of the Boston Red Sox until his untimely death in 1989—once wrote about how baseball is designed to break your heart . . . but only after two glorious opening acts.
“The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.”
There are those who learn after a few times and leave baseball and sports behind, Giamatti writes. They have the wisdom to know that nothing lasts.
“I am not that grown-up or up-to-date. I am a simpler creature, tied to more primitive patterns and cycles. I need to think something lasts forever, and it might as well be that state of being that is a game; it might as well be that, in a green field, in the sun.”
In the chaos that is our national political life, what helps us see those things that last forever might as well be love, hope, joy, and living in the moment. That’s the promise of March to me.
Let’s jump in and see what caught my eye this month in MORE TO COME.
READER FAVORITES
The first part of the month was spent on the other side of the world as we traveled with National Trust Tours to the Seychelles and Madagascar. The longer visual travelogue of our journey—Passage from the Seychelles to Madagascar—was the top reader favorite this month. There you will discover lemurs, giant tortoises, chameleons, waterfalls, an amazing International Women’s Day parade in Hellville, Madagascar, and much more.
Those of us with the means and inclination to travel are rewarded with amazing opportunities to learn about different cultures, different landscapes, different environments. We also learn about how similar we are to others around the world. Travel—which is truly a privilege—helps us learn to celebrate our diversity and rejoice in our similarities.
Next year Candice and I are revisiting a land that will be included in any list of the most memorable journeys of my life. We’ll explore the rich history and vibrant culture of tropical Indochina as National Trust Tours takes us to Vietnam & Cambodia—Cruising the Mekong River. I promise it will touch you in deep and meaningful ways. Come travel with us!
A FINE WAY TO CELEBRATE
A giant tortoise can live to be 200, so this one that we saw in the Seychelles probably has a few years on me. Nonetheless, I began another trip around the sun myself this month. A fine way to celebrate a special day has a bit of an animal theme to it, as I quote the Billy Collins poem Once in a Dog’s Age.
Every creature moves along
the treadmill of time at its own pace,
most insects hurrying along,
while the tortoise lumbers under its armor.
WE’RE TALKING BASEBALL
Did I mention that baseball season has begun?
My exuberance bubbled over in March as I posted three columns focused on this timeless game.
- Playing for joy came at the end of a thrilling World Baseball Classic. Most of the teams involved, but not all, reminded us of what it means to play for joy.
- Take me out to the ballgame looks at some of the best of the songs about baseball. Who knew that Bob Dylan wrote a song about Catfish Hunter?!
- My personal spring training routine each year is to read a new book about baseball and watch the movie Bull Durham. Baseball is the belly-button of our society is my review of the 2018 book Why Baseball Matters.
BOOKS AND MORE
I also read the following this past month:
- The dandelion principle is my take on the fascinating Why Fish Don’t Exist, which is part biography, part memoir, and part scientific thriller. I paired it with a few photos from our trip as a visual teaser.
- Celebration of interdependence is my review of the wonderful Clint Smith book of poems Above Ground. It is also my fourth installment in the series on independent bookshops in the DC region.
- There is a war on history that has about as much to do with history as the “occupation” of Washington or Minneapolis has to do with crime. A new book of essays written by one of our country’s most distinguished historians arrives into this moment like a bracing breath of fresh air. I review Eric Foner’s newest work in Illuminating the past in light of the present.
- The narrative of America considers Walter Isaacson’s short book on the second sentence in the Declaration of Independence (“We hold these truths . . .”).
You can discover the books reviewed last month in From the bookshelf: February 2026 along with this month’s summary in From the bookshelf: March 2026. Finally, you’ll find links to stories from a few writers who have important things to say in A Saturday grab bag: The Ides of March edition.
COMMENTS I LOVED
In response to my baseball-themed post Playing for joy, Brilliant Reader and baseball fan Robyn Ryle commented on Joe Posnanski’s column about the soullessness of the American men’s baseball team during the World Baseball Classic.
“This was amazing! Thanks for calling it to my attention. He summarized everything I felt watching Team U.S.A. but had not yet wrapped words around. They were joyless! Which is exactly one of the things that happens in the slide into authoritarianism, because joy is subversive. And, yes, when Harper hit that home run and saluted for the camera, I was grossed out, not impressed. It was all just very yuck.”
Oh, and Robyn is the author of the novel Sex of the Midwest, which you should absolutely read.
DON’T POSTPONE JOY
Thanks, as always, for reading. Your friendship, support and feedback mean more than I can ever express.
As you travel life’s highways be open to love; thirst for wonder; undertake some mindful, transformative walking every day. Recognize the incredible privilege that most of us have and think about how to put that privilege to use for good. Women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, immigrants, public servants, and others can feel especially vulnerable . . . because they are. Work hard for justice and democracy as the fight never ends.
But also keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable. Take time to dawdle and dream. Let yourself be bewildered!
Leave enough empty space to feel and experience life. Those gaps are where the magic begins. When times get rough, let your memories wander back to some wonderful place with remembrances of family and friends. But don’t be too hard on yourself if a few of the facts slip. Just get the poetry right.
Be comfortable in the mystery. Seek the uplifting spirit that leads to a life of grace and wonder.
Grace to help us remember that we can do hard things. “Grace to never sell yourself short; Grace to risk something big for something good; and Grace to remember the world is now too dangerous for anything but the truth and too small for anything but love . . .”
Wonder to help us remember that “we are here to keep watch, not to keep.” Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. And bash into some joy along the way.
Life is finite . . . love is not.
Try to be nice. Always be kind.
More to come . . .
DJB
For the February 2026 summary, click here.
You can subscribe to MORE TO COME by going to the small “Follow” box that is on the right-hand column of the site (on the desktop version) or at the bottom right on your mobile device. It is great to hear from readers, and if you like them feel free to share these posts on your own social media platforms.
MORE TO COME... 