I will get down on my knees and pray. My hands are folded reverently in front of me. I stare at them. They’re not yours, they are my own. What is it that they did today, these hands? What do they say about my day, about me? Did they do kind things for others? In […]
“So, here’s the thing”, she said. “The real demarcation between the end of one day and the beginning of the next is 3:37 am, not midnight. That’s the time when all stragglers from the night before are off the roads and the farmers and bakers are just starting their day.” OK, so admittedly this is […]
diet \ di·et \ n … derived from the Greek word diaita meaning “way of living” 2: something provided or experienced repeatedly The Mediterranean Diet is one of the healthiest, most practical eating plans out there. While the foods are essential, they’re responsible for only a part of the health benefits. It’s the way of […]
It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that the studies for nutritional labeling were initiated by our government during World War II to assure that military personnel would receive ‘superior nutrition’! Today, the terms are dizzying – Estimated Average Requirements, Recommended Dietary Allowances, Adequate Intake, Tolerable Upper Intake Levels, Acceptable Macronutrient Distribution Ranges, […]
Twenty years ago, I met with a talented young woman who very capably ran our Graphic Arts department. She had requested a meeting with me to “explore” the ramifications of pursuing her dream to move to Hawaii and be the artist she is. She had not yet committed to this direction, at least not to […]
Years ago, I sat with my then teenage son at the window counter of a coffeehouse on Trafalgar Square, content to just people watch. He turned and asked me something like: “what are the odds I’ll see someone from my high school class in this throng”? Knowing he wasn’t looking for a response on the […]
I remember words to songs, but not lines to movies. In my years with this column I have oft written of songs that have impacted me, but not of any movies or shows. That changes today. Native America is a four-part PBS series that challenges everything we thought we knew about the Americas before and […]
There are lines from songs, fragments really, that swirl around in my head until the circumstances are just right when they just pop out responsively. A line I have quoted many times in a wide variety of situations is from The Road, a song written by Danny O’Keefe in 1972: ‘you forget about the losses, […]
We sat together, chatting, in the very relaxed space and time friends share during the wind down at the end of a visit. We bounced around many topics over the past few days – those things currently important to each of us, questions posed and answered, insights shared. Catching up with each other’s lives, strengthening […]
Those eyes… warm, dancing. Soft brown, not quite gold. The kind that hold you captive in conversation. In random seating at a long table, I sat across from her. We had all gathered to participate in what has become a Mothers’ Day tradition in our family – the stroll down the boardwalk on the Jersey […]