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Having the Art Institute of Chicago nearby was a definite bonus of growing up in Hinsdale. Thanks to a steady cadence of visits that included Oak School class trips and the obligatory tour for out-of-town visitors, the Art Institute provided me with a world-class early education in the visual arts. "Nighthawks," "A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte" and all the Monets entranced me, every time. It has been such a joy to encounter "Water Lilies" not just in my "home town" but...
There are two cats in my life right now. One's in Ireland and the other is in Hinsdale, and both of them have made this crazy time more bearable. Moomin is my rescue cat. Like so many, lockdown inspired me to add a pet to the household. We found Moomin at the Hinsdale Humane Society after they featured her in The Hinsdalean. She's a white-haired beauty who won't give a cardboard box a second look but can spend hours stalking an elastic hair band. She's not much of a cuddler,...
When I moved my household from Washington, D.C. into storage, I got rid of about 100 books. Some were obvious choices, like the global trade textbook that was required for a class I took in 1989 but irrelevant both to me and the current study of economics. Some gave me pause, like the novel "London" by Edward Rutherford. It's an informative history of the city wrapped up in a gripping 2,000-year narrative, but it comes in at 829 pages and weighs a ton. As I went through this...
It's time to look back at the year that was and reflect on lessons learned. Of course, learning a lesson is not the same as applying it, and I am far from skilled at practicing what I'm preaching. While I never got around to picking up a new language or learning a new instrument, I think I've developed an important skill: the ability to listen. People at work and in my personal life have often told me to listen more. I would try, but actually I was basically still engaging...
Finally - after being apart since February, I was able to see my partner Patrick in person. We spent the month of August in Ireland, after waiting through various July deadlines to see if the restrictions keeping me from France, where Patrick had been quarantined since February, would be lifted. Fortunately, Ireland, like the UK, was still open to US citizens traveling from here, as long as we self-quarantined for 14 days after arrival. In Ireland, things seemed so, well, norm...
After volunteering these past few weeks at HCS Family Services with the food pantry and more recently experiencing the justified outrage about police brutality and systemic discrimination against black Americans, I've been thinking a lot about mindfulness. I've realized that mindfulness isn't just about contemplating or being aware of what's around me. Mindfulness is about taking action because of my awareness. Without this second part, my awareness is meaningless. In the...
I have a doctoral dissertation to write. It will come in at about 80,000 words. Knowing what a daunting target that is, my advisor suggested that I break it down, for example by aiming for 8,000 words a month. Each month articulates one point I want to make in support of my thesis. That's just one "normal size" research paper a month. No big deal - I got this. Working from home during this pandemic, this advice is serving me well beyond the dissertation. One day, overwhelmed b...
Changing habits can be difficult, especially when it's a choice and not something that is forced upon you. When I first lived in Belgium more than 30 years ago, the grocery store provided single-use plastic bags, and I used them. But a combination of factors, including extensive government campaigns about the environmental impact of these bags that made me feel guilty and bag taxes that made me not want to pay for them, changed my habits. I assembled a favorite collection of...
When I moved my household from Washington, D.C. into storage, I got rid of about 100 books. Some were obvious choices, like the global trade textbook that was required for a class I took in 1989 but irrelevant both to me and the current study of economics. Some gave me pause, like the novel "London" by Edward Rutherford. It's an informative history of the city wrapped up in a gripping 2,000-year narrative, but it comes in at 829 pages and weighs a ton. As I went through this...
We sold Mom’s Spode Christmas Tree china set this week on Craig’s List. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?” I asked Mom. She pointed out that we had packed up the set over a year ago. She apparently needed a buffer year before being ready to actually sell it. This got me thinking about collections. Mom’s Spode was not just a collecting event for her, it was a signaling of the holiday season for our family. But last year, no one noticed it was gone. What focused our attention w...
"You have to be patient to live here," Patrick remarked with a wry smile. We were trapped in a narrow street in the small French town where we were spending the month. There was nowhere else to go, so we had to wait while the farmer unloaded her crates. It's easier to be patient when you're on holiday. Freed from our regular routines and locales, we take annoyances in stride, even finding them charming. Isn't it quaint that we have to get up early to buy the baguettes before...