Tag: music
When Effort Becomes Effortless
“The best effort of a fine person is felt after we have left their presence.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson When I turned 75, I took up playing the guitar. I have found it is not an effortless endeavor. I have to make great effort to remember the notes, find the right chords, keep the beat, strum the right strings, and remember the words. And things don’t come as easily when your fingers are not as nimble Read More
The Flame
Oh Leonard, how we miss you!! You lightened our days and emboldened our hearts. When I’m feeling dark and depressed after plowing through the New York Times every morning, I often call out to Alexa, “Please play Leonard Cohen.” Last week, when I made my repetitive request, Alexa started the shuffle with “You Want It Darker.” Here are the opening lyrics: If you are the dealer, I’m out of the game If you are the Read More
Stories and Songs
Research indicates that the best way to raise funds for a group is to share a story about one individual member. Narrative is powerful and empowering, yet it strikes me how different each of our stories can be: The scope of our hope, the depth of our love, the beauty of our grace, and our experience of justice vary greatly by simple circumstance; for example, being born on one side of a wall or the other.
Pain and Empathy
Pain may not be your friend, but it may be your partner. And pain may be the path to empathy.
Community and Connection
Walking onto the campus of Interlochen Arts Academy is like walking into a different world. For one, there is as much artistic genius per square foot as there is mathematical genius at MIT. There is also a richness of diversity. In a typical summer, 2,500 kids from all over the world and practically every state attend the camp for four to eight weeks of intense study in music, drama, creative writing, dance, and/or visual arts. Read More
Freedom
It’s a terrible feeling and a freeing experience to have your illusions destroyed. As I walked down the streets of Saigon and watched the army trucks full of terrified, tough kids purposely drive through mud puddles so that they could laugh gleefully as the brown, polluted water splashed randomly on the elegant, white, long dresses of the beautiful Vietnamese women I knew my view of the world had been irrevocably shaken. In the name of Read More
Being at Home in the Universe
An Internal Space or an External Refuge At my older daughter’s wedding, she sang the song, “Feels Like Home to Me” to her husband. It struck me that we are all searching for a sense of home in our lives and I was so grateful that she had found a man with whom she felt at home. Her beautiful voice filled the reception hall and my hope for everyone there was that they felt, in Read More