Archives in Category: Things to Ponder

Ten minutes to write. Less time to read.

Moonlight Sonata

Posted on April 4, 2016

It’s one of Beethoven’s signature compositions, that piano piece with umpteen octave fingerings in the left hand and complicated sharps, flats, and surprises in the right. It’s also a piece that every serious intermediate student of piano attempts.

I’ve attempted

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St. Patrick’s Day

Posted on March 17, 2016

If I weren’t going to a St. Patrick’s Day party this evening, I might have forgotten the day completely.

My mother, one hundred percent Irish, would never have approved. Her favorite color was green, and St. Patrick’s Day was up

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Unplugged

Posted on February 22, 2016

Even on vacation, I pack my laptop and spend time each day being tethered to my writing, my email inbox, and various social media.  “I’d rather do that than come home to crises or a gazillion emails,” I counter when

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Barbie at 57

Posted on February 11, 2016

Currently there is a lot of hubbub about Barbie, the quintessential doll with the grown up figure and the perpetually pointed toes. Created by Mattel in 1959, the original version will be fifty-seven years old next month.  That’s a lot

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Piano Practice

Posted on January 28, 2016

I took up piano in my fifties; and, while my brain understands such things as chords, rhythm, and staccato, my hands must work hard to play the music. It’s like learning a second language as an adult, except that you

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Reflections

Posted on January 24, 2016

It’s been almost ten years since we visited some of the ports on this cruise; with the exception of the rebuilding of Grand Cayman, I was disappointed in what the decade has brought. Back then, the ships docked at local

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St. Maarten

Posted on January 15, 2016

My favorite Caribbean island is St. Maarten because it represents what collaboration can do.  Sixty percent of the land belongs to the French with the capital at Marigot.  The other forty percent belongs to the Dutch with the capital at

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Musings on Being Dangerous

Posted on January 9, 2016

Yesterday’s flight from Chicago to Ft. Lauderdale was uneventful once I got through the extra-diligent security check. But it got me thinking. My experience could be compared to the current questions regarding allowing Syrian refugees, or any other refugees, into

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Embracing Social Media

Posted on January 4, 2016

Just as I’m trying to get over my anti-social stance on social media and embrace sharing my life with total strangers in the name of fame, along comes Emily McFarlan Miller. Ms. Miller has been a social media editor whose

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Hate Has No Business Here

Posted on December 23, 2015

On this eve of Christmas Eve, I read a story about a couple of small business owners in Minnesota who are standing up against the current spike in xenophobia. Their names are Elana and Danny Schwartzman, and they own the

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