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Kindness

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Every year, just before Thanksgiving, I remember a woman, Mary, who I never knew very well. She was a neighbor who lived just a couple of blocks away. Our children were good friends, but our paths rarely crossed. She owned a specialty store in Plaza del Lago, Wilmette, a community just north of Evanston where we both lived. The shop had all kinds of Italian foods, sausages, cheeses, breads. An absolutely delicious assortment of salads, grilled vegetables, wines. Anyhow, Steve had chest surgery in October and after a fairly long stint in the hospital he came home. Within three weeks, he developed an excruciating pain in his leg which turned out to be a blood clot. So a few days before Thanksgiving, he was back in the hospital for another two weeks on bedrest. The children and I spent our days going back and forth between school, the hospital and home. There was no way I could prepare a Thanksgiving dinner. So I walked across the street and asked Mary if she would put together some sausa...
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Introspection

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I just remembered, a few minutes ago, that today is Saturday! I need to write a post to all of you. So here I am. In all fairness, I did a full day program yesterday, something I haven't done for years, although I do remember going out for dinner with friends afterwards in the past. Yesterday, I came back to my apartment and literally collapsed. Which reminded me, yet again, I'm no spring chicken. The experience was much more than interesting and informative. It provided me with some introspection. I've never been much of a team player. I'll do it my way, thank you very much. Years ago, a friend of mine and I created Moon Lodge together, a program to support new mothers, but we knew each other for years, shared the same vision.  We were building something together that we knew beforehand we wanted to create.  Yesterday, I learned first hand there is value in being with a group of people you don't know or have only met in passing, and creating something together. In ...
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Recitals

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 A few months ago, there was a young man here, a cellist student, who performed for the residents at Saint John's. He had studied abroad, Spain I think. Some of his family and friends were in the audience. Saint John's often gives young musicians an opportunity to perform in front of an audience, a great use of our auditorium space.    Our cellist began with a very difficult piece and, unfortunately, lost his way towards the end and abruptly stopped. He could have pretended he'd reached the end with a fake flurry. Instead of being embarrassed, he laughed and said, "Well, I knew that might happen and I'm glad I got my most difficult piece out of the way first. Now I can relax." Impressive. I can offer the flip side of that. When I was a little girl, I started taking piano lessons when I was about ten years old, something I had been begging my mother to allow me to do for nearly a year. She was reluctant to give me lessons because my older sister had quit after ...
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More Random Thoughts

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If you haven't seen the movie Joy , it's worth your time. It's the true story of the world's first in vitro fertilization baby in 1978. Robert Edwards, Patrick Steptoe and Jean Purdy were a devoted team that worked tirelessly for ten years to help infertile women conceive. At the very end, the commentary said that while the men received recognition and awards for their efforts, Jean Purdy was excluded and did not receive any acknowledgement until 2015, many years after her death. Seeing that sent me down that rabbit hole where I have been before, reading and learning about the many dozens of disregarded women who have given us great literature, scientific discoveries, art and research. Why were they excluded from recognition, rewards, history books and college courses? Is it fear or jealousy or both? Is that exclusion still going on or has it stopped? I've actually no idea. But I do think that it may very well be continuing, but, hopefully, to a lesser extent. In Ch...
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