J. eats podcasts in huge bites—in the gym, on his bike, in the car. He’s shared a few sticky things from a clinical psychologist, writer and speaker who challenges him. Put your shoulders back (bravely face the world and your difficulties), and creativity is a powerful antidote to depression. I’ve gotten…
I feel like I went to church at The Blue Room and there were a thousand points of light to illuminate and connect what has been on my mind. We went to hear live R&B. The man on the stool next to me in the sort of makeshift balcony assumed…
In the middle of another organizing project, I found notes from a few years ago when I was captivated by the idea of summum bonum, a Latin expression introduced by the Roman philosopher Cicero that means the highest good. I thought it would be amazing to write a memoir of…
We’ve all heard the famous axiom of Chicago Architect Louis Sullivan (1856–1924): form follows function. Frank Lloyd Wright elevated the teaching of his mentor to argue over his lifetime of work that form and function are one. So many others have argued that what we create must be aesthetically pleasing—beautiful—and…
I have loved tearooms and the tea experience all my adult life. Sunday high tea in Stirling, Scotland, in the home of an elderly woman after a walk around the village green was high adventure—and a cheery, calming presence—for a young, newly arrived college woman. J. and I fell in…
Kim brought a layered berry blitz torte to our home to go with the charcuterie we served before music theatre. Maybe she brought it to step up our light food and beverage offering (an unintended pun; we saw A Chorus Line that evening). She “wrapped it” in a newspaper clip with…