Among the fine presents received on a recent birthday, let me cite only the oldest. It came from my sister Maureen, who has been long established as our family historian.
She gave me an old photograph that displays some thirty people, both adults and children, members of my maternal grandparents’ extended family. The photo must have been made before the year 1900, probably in 1895.
A message has come from my alma mater asking my views on the way for students to profit most from the college experience. This request pleases me because I judge myself as having something to contribute.
Recently a close friend displayed a use of technology previously unknown to me. No, it was not a drone, or a robot, but rather an iPhone used as I had never seen it before.
What David did was respond immediately to my enthusiasm for a just-printed book written by my friend, Beth Macy. This work is called “Factory Man” and focuses on the achievements of the owner of a wood furniture company in Virginia.
One experience in my college career stands out in memory more than any other. That was an encounter in the natural Science course of my sophomore year. That was a course intended for students like me. We did not intend to go one in science, nor were some of us capable of doing so.
The young woman suddenly leapt from the stage onto the lap of the gentleman sitting in the front row, right next to me. I was thoroughly startled, and, I must confess, a bit disappointed that the jumper had not chosen my lap.
In the role of Hermia in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” this charming actress was one of fifteen lyric and aerobic performers for Shakespeare & Company.
It was billed as the summer solstice block party. The email announcements had begun to arrive several months ago from two enterprising women, Ali and Jill.
For the eighth time, our neighborhood was celebrating the season with a street gala. It has become one of our best traditions.
My experience of growing old sometimes echoes that of a psychologist named Florida Scott-Maxwell. When in her eighties, and living in a nursing home, she wrote:
“A long life makes me feel nearer truth, yet it won’t go into words. So how can I convey it: I can’t and I want to. I want to tell people approaching and perhaps fearing age that it is a time of discovery.