Final Blooms Maya Angelou – “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” After reading Angelou’s comment, I often ask myself if

Twin Stars We live in an explosive universe!  Why Dwell on Negativity? The media revels in stories of disaster, incompetence, corruption, war, and murder. Why? Why dwell on terrible things? Why watch accounts of January 6th over and over again?

The Other Oppenheimer The film Oppenheimer brings back memories of Robert Oppenheimer’s brother Frank, a colleague from my days as a museum director. I knew him years after he worked on the nuclear bomb with Robert. Frank started the Exploratorium

Life Rolls With Hope Though troubles rain down, the couple makes sure their child remains free from trauma and hardship. The American Family  Last week, I wrote about friendship relationships and how they evolve and dissolve in our mobile technological

THE THREE SIRENS are friends from my youth without the wrinkles they have today. When do you call a person your friend? The homeless boy my husband and I took into our house, considered any street kid he spent time

Embrace Boredom! The photo on the left is taken from Jake’s cafe patio. The painting on the right is a work-in-progress, an outline of what might eventually emerge on my canvas. I’ve been working on it for two days and

SHOCKED Words may not mean what you think they do Though language is constantly evolving, I don’t always like it. But to understand what young people are saying, I’m forced to stay up with the times. I’m not talking about

Grand Prize More than thirty years ago, Martin Eichinger was invited to meet Stevie Wonder at a preview showing of the documentary, “The Secret Life of Plants.” Though an unusual gathering took place before the screening with women waiting outside

Five Men in a Tub is my version of the rhyme Political and social poetry are not new genres. Poets of every generation marked historical moments with poems critical of society. Nursery rhymes often conveyed hidden messages that spoke to

The Orator Does he stand on his soapbox hoping his complaints will be heard by people who will do something about them? Or, does he just want to vent and have others agree with him?  Do older Americans complain more