Tree Knots
“I’d like to be a tree,” said actress Katharine Hepburn during her 1981 interview on the TV program 20/20. “What kind of tree?” Barbara Walters asked as a follow up. “An oak because they are strong and pretty.” She didn’t mention that oak tree leaves and acorns are...
Dissonance
Bethany, Connecticut’s Amity Regional Junior High School band marched in the Memorial Day Parade that sunny day in May some fifty years ago. I played both flute and piccolo to John Philip Sousa’s The Thunderer. Our band had a good reputation and attracted large...
West Side Story
I’m under ten years old, anticipating that magical double-digit landmark, and whirling around the living room in my pajamas, waving scarves and wrapping them around me. “I feel pretty, oh, so pretty,” I sing. On the stereo, my father plays the soundtrack of West...
Go with the Flow
My husband is a contrarian. That is, he doesn’t bow to peer pressure or “go with the flow,” at least not by definition. He’s unlikely to “do what other people are doing or agree with other people’s opinions because it is the easiest thing to do.” In that regard, he...