Listen to “The Sound of Silence,” by Simon and Garfunkel Half a century ago, a groundbreaking film hit the screens of America’s movie theaters, catapulting the career of a young Dustin Hoffman to movie stardom and offering an entire generation of young people a single piece of career advice: “plastics.” It was The Graduate; a classic I shall never forget. At that time, my husband Larry and I had been married about a year and a half. Of all the films Larry and I watched together during our … [Read more...]
A Memory of Music and Movement as a Healing Balm
On October 10th, the world commemorated World Mental Health Day, an important global milestone in raising awareness about the pervasiveness of mental illness in today’s modern society, as well as a chance to highlight the many avenues of treatment. It seems that hardly a day goes by in which the headlines don’t trumpet stories about individuals clearly exhibiting behaviors associated with mental illness. The unanswered question for me is always whether the outcome might have been different had … [Read more...]
Music Memories: Ripple
It was about 25 years ago when I first became acquainted with the music of the Grateful Dead. Unlike many of the other rock bands or mainstream music acts I’d grown to know and love in the 50s, 60s and 70s, the music of the Grateful Dead always had seemed somehow different and less accessible to me. Ironically, my first true introduction to the band came later in my life through my daughter Laura. During that period, I was the new superintendent of a public school in Illinois, and she was … [Read more...]
Musical Memories: Don’t Worry Be Happy
Are you disturbed by the news of the day? Do today’s headlines seem almost entirely focused on struggle and acrimony? One of the downsides of staying engaged in the world these days is that so much of the news seems bleak. Just a quick review of this morning’s headlines is a case in point. Millions struggle in Puerto Rico in the wake of two killer hurricanes, there’s ongoing division and strife about what constitutes Americans’ first amendment rights, cyber attacks threaten to compromise our … [Read more...]
Musical Memories: The U.S. Air Force & I Can’t Stop Loving You
Nostalgia is a powerful force. Sometimes it sits besides you like an old friend and other times it sneaks up when you least expect it. Two recent holidays, National POW/MIA Recognition Day on September 15 and the Air Force Birthday on September 17 have evoked deep nostalgic feelings within me and reminded me of two songs, stylistically different, but similar in the memories that they represent in my heart and mind. “The U.S. Air Force” or, as it’s better known, “Wild Blue Yonder” will always … [Read more...]
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