I'm honored and delighted that my poem "Star Dust" was selected for the Philadelphia Inquirer Poetry Contest in April 2012.

Star Dust

The night domes   a Bach Fugue  One of us

lifts her iPhone like the Statue of Liberty  She

has… Read full post »

Part 2:  Bailing Water For His Life!

To recap Part 1:  Thirty years ago this week, I was 25 years old, going about my daily round.  I didn’t know that on an 86-foot sailboat in a storm off the coast of Cape May NJ, my younger brother/… Read full post »

Part 1:  Red Sky at Morning, Sailor Take Warning

 Seafarers tell many stories about sunken ships, some perhaps haunted by ghosts of their crew.  I imagine she is one of those lost boats, under the ocean, about 200 miles southeast of Cape May New Jerse/… Read full post »

ACT 3: HEART IN THE RIGHT PLACE

A REAL LIFE MEDICAL DRAMA IN 3 ACTS

ACT 2: THE ER

To recap Act 1 of this real-life medical drama:  Sitting in the passenger seat of the ambulance to Children’s Hospital, I recall the series of events that led to my teenage son’s experience in the Emergency/… Read full post »

A REAL LIFE MEDICAL DRAMA IN 3 ACTS

ACT 1: THE AMBULANCE

The scene opens with the screech of a siren.  A camera shot of the dashboard radio, playing the surreal “Jingle Bell Rock.”  The camera focuses on my face as I clutch my knapsack to my chest in/… Read full post »

A School Closes Forever,

A Victim of Economy and Demographics

We have gathered again for Banner Day – not just any Banner Day.  The last Banner Day. I stand in the crowd in front of the school, with so many beloved friends I met here as my/… Read full post »

His spare leg slung over his shoulder, Denny saunters into the gym.  He flashes his 100-watt smile at my husband Bart and me, as we chat idly beside an exercise bike -- just a couple of 50-somethings hoping to work off the effects of desk jobs, stress, and our love for/… Read full post »

(The painting above, "La Belle Angele" was painted by Gauguin as a thank-you to a Pont-Aven innkeeper and his wife who extended him credit at their cafe.  The couple didn't like it -- they thought the portrait didn't look like Angele, and/… Read full post »

Tuesday morning is Market Day in Pont-Aven.  As usual, the day starts out clear and sunny, but soon the drizzle begins.  My sister-in-law and broth/… Read full post »

Les lavandieres de Pont-Aven, by Paul Gauguin

 (First installment in a series of photo essays about our visit to Pont-Aven, a small village in Brittany, France.)  

My brother-in-law Ken emailed us that one of his colleagues at the university o… Read full post »

 Tonight’s news of the death of Walter Cronkite reminds me of one of my favorite stories about my dad, who was close to the same age as Cronkite and who passed away at the age of 91 last December.

My father was an educated man, an admiralty lawyer… Read full post »

When I drive down Germantown Ave in Philadelphia to pick up the carpool at my son’s Quaker School, I pass through busy urban stop-and-go traffic, through the upscale Chestnut Hill section and the artsy multi-culti Mt. Airy into Germantown.

In Germantown,… Read full post »

As some of you know from my past posts on the subject, for the past few months, I’ve been teaching the Middle School class at Quaker Sunday School.  (We call it First Day School, since traditionally Quakers don’t use the Roman names of the days of t/… Read full post »

Affirmative Action Bake Sale

If you missed the LIVE discussion, please go to RonP01's blog to read it.

In April of 1939, a grief-stricken Norwegian immigrant, demonstrating a family tendency toward sudden bursts of extravagance, plunked down the princely sum of $250 to buy a cemetery plot for his wife Laura, who had just passed away unexpectedly, leaving him and his two young sons… Read full post »

(A Somewhat-Related Digression From the Open Dialogue on Race)

The Open Dialogue on Race continues with a new post on Joy-Ann Reid's blog at:

http://open.salon.com/blog/joy-ann_reid/2009… Read full post »

Open Dialogue on Race Part V

HAS BEEN POSTED!!!!

on RonP01's blog

http://open.salon.com/blog/ronp01/2009/05/25/racism_and_classism_open_dialogue_on_race_part_v#

The hypothesis will be "Classism has/will replace Racism as the dominant social issue in America."

Catch up on the OPEN DIALOGUE ON RACE:

P… Read full post »

An Open Dialogue on Race II

 Note: This post is a response to a recent post by RonP01, who suggested we open a dialogue on Open Salon on the subject of race.  You can view RonP01's post here:

http://open.salon.com/blog/ronp01/2009/05/12/buchanan_cheney_and_limbaugh_attack_coli… Read full post »

 Just about this time last year we took a beautiful walk with some friends in Ricketts Glen State Park in Pennsylvania.  We discovered that many Pennsylvanians don't even know about this amazing natural asset, just a few hours from Philadelphia. 

Ricketts Glen is h… Read full post »

If I’d only known then what I know now – would I have been so idealistic?

I’d thought I was educated. But until that moment, I had no idea that torture still took place in the world.

It was in the early 1980s.  I was watching a segment on/… Read full post »

Or,

You Never Know What Your Dog Might Find in Your Own Yard

Or,

What Blows Around Comes Around: A Mystery

Just when I thought nothing else could go wrong, I woke up on Monday morning, took one look at my normally happy-all-the-time little… Read full post »

Last week I attended “Cezanne and Beyond” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  I have been thinking about it ever since.  It is only now that I’m beginning to see the deeper message of this exhibition – That in opening our eyes to see/… Read full post »