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The Next Great Generation
According to a July article in the New York Times, the Millennials surpassed the Baby Boomers in numbers. This is important news to everyone – especially the Baby Boomers – who throughout their lives have always been the largest demographic group as well as the dominant one. Baby Boomers are now retired and living on Social Security and Medicare. They have the opportunity to make an impact on their community and the planet. They are still relatively young and capable of action and change. I believe Boomers must embrace their children’s (Millennials) beliefs and lifestyle. If we believe that generations repeat again, then it makes good sense to look at each generation…
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Notes from the Field
One of the benefits of moving to a new region of the country are the new species that you will encounter. The black skimmer is one example. Black skimmers arrive in April and May, and lay their “clutch” throughout the summer. They are endangered where I live in part due to human disturbance as beach goers trample their nests. They do live in colonies from Sandy Hook – north of here – and Cape May -south of here- where there are more dunes. In Asbury Park we have lots of turtles and particularly the female Northern Diamond Back terrapin is in some cases still looking for warm high ground to…
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Chance Meetings
Single means alone and I never thought that was my calling. But I did hope to move in the world in a unique fashion, even if it meant being by myself. I traveled to New York City last week for several appointments and to see art. I always knew that I would end up walking the city, in spite of the heat, to see all the changes close-up . Visits to MoMA and the Met Museum (to see the amazing Japanese Bamboo Collection) were also in my plans. I walked up Park Avenue from the Village and it seemed that every parking lot had become a luxury skyscraper. Sarabeth’s Kitchen caught my…
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Yesterday
Recently I heard the song “Yesterday” by the Beatles and I was moved to tears. The memory of the loss of my beloved grandmother washed over me and I knew exactly the moment in time and the place. Quickly I returned to a time when I was a young girl of 13. I sensed that losing my grandmother would change my life, but I had no way of knowing how long it would take for me to understand it. I remember being in in her apartment after the loss. I liked being near her things. She had been an organist in the Methodist church and she had a small electric organ.…
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Tabitha Grace
Last Fall my darling cat Tabitha became very old almost overnight. Her narrow shoulders sloped downward the way an old person’s would. When she sat down with me on the porch, where we could feel the sea breezes, she would circle around her soft bed and tuck her legs gently under her with perfect delicacy. I could almost feel the arthritic pain. I winced knowing that, I too, would someday be her age and, having been a runner for most of my life, would also feel this pain. She moved so slowly, but with such a strong spirit. On April 28, she left this earth. I was with her at…
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Sicut Cervus
Several years ago I studied voice with Marcia Young, a wonderful soprano from St. Luke-in-the-Field’s Church, in Greenwich Village. She taught me how to find my voice at the back of my head and to support my voice which was not an alto, but rather a mid-range soprano. That was the beginning of this journey back to singing, but I needed lots of training, singing and sight-reading to improve and enjoy singing more fully. There are many benefits from singing. I recently read about a woman who suffers from a genetic skin disorder and she returned to her early love — singing. She says: ” I sang fully conscious of…
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In Rome without a Selfie
Last week I had the pleasure of traveling with a friend to Rome and the Amalfi Coast. It was crowded with many Americans and Europeans, but pleasant and sunny. Technology has provided us with apps to get around and phones to photograph every site and antiquity we see, but we stuck with our maps and our guide books. Everywhere one looks there is the endless “selfie.” As baby boomers, we are accustomed to thinking and defining our world according to the self, but enough about me. I am more interested in the people and the place I am visiting. I was fortunate to travel with a friend who has a great facility…
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Cutting Down the Cherry Trees
Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” is a story of Russia in the throes of social upheaval. It takes place during the last days of Lyubov Ranevskaya’s beloved estate, which is set to be auctioned, along with her famed cherry orchard. In the end, Ranevskaya is unable to save her estate. A former serf buys it at auction to turn it into a housing development. The last sound heard in the play is the chopping down of the cherry trees. I remember the first time I saw “The Cherry Orchard” at BAM in Brooklyn. It was a long and agonizing play and all the lamenting in it struck me as tiresome.…
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chiaroscuro
This week marks both the observance of Passover for Jewish people and the celebration of Holy Week with the culmination of Easter for Catholics, Orthodox Christians and Protestant Christians. The themes of light and darkness weave their way through both of these expressions of faith. Below is a beautiful photograph which a friend took in the middle of the woods. It shows how light can find its way in the middle of a dense forest and illumine the darkness. It is harder with mankind to see light in the darkness, but I believe it is possible to see hope when all is dark. Many thinkers and writers have written about the…
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Pied Beauty: Embracing Imperfection
“Pied Beauty” by Gerard Manley Hopkins praises everything multi-colored, dappled, and couple-colored. Today I found a gold finch which had struck a window. Its beautiful, mottled body was so delicate. It was a male with a winter coat. I thought of how Hopkins’ poem does not glorify perfection, but rather embraces the imperfect in nature. In fact nature’s beauty lies in those exquisite “finches wings.” I carefully wrapped the small gold finch, said a prayer over it and buried it. Imperfection is difficult to accept in ourselves. We long for the perfect mind and body, the job that fits our skills, the well-behaved children, the beautiful smile, well-groomed pets, and lots…
