Seeking the Sublime in the Everyday

 Happy Birthday to all born under the sign of Taurus.  That includes my Mom and Dad, Uncle Jack and Aunt Mary Gae, and all of Louise Russell Swanson's granddaughters. And Happy May, everybody, although we have to wait til Monday. It wasn't a horrible winter, weather wise, but it's alway nice to welcome the lilacs. This morning I attended the Auburn Seminary Lives of Commitment Benefit Awards and Breakfast at Cipriani 42nd Street, which used to be the Bowery Savings Bank, built in 1921 and boy, did they know how to make a bank look good in those days.  We listened to some amazing and inspiring women and then, walking to the F train I discovered... The passageway from the Public Library at Fifth Avenue to Sixth used to be a terrible place to walk but it's been transformed into an underground...I can't think of the right word.  This is Under Bryant Park, by Samm Kunce.    Roots, pipes and dirt. There are also quotes from James Joyce, Mother Goose, Carl Jung and Ovid.

  Tonight, April 25, at 6 pm EDT Here's the link; https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81165962803?pwd=SnUvWThhdE5rTGk2OURDWENKS1Nkdz09 We'll chat for a few minutes-no more that 4, look at all the work and the artists will talk, then if we have time we'll take a few questions. I look forward to seeing you!

  I should have told you this yesterday but I'm reminding you now, that the closing reception for the  7 Days show will be this Sunday, that's tomorrow, April 23 from 12 noon til 4 pm.  at the First Presbyterian Church, 12 West 12th Street at Fifth Avenue. I'll be there the whole time and I'd love to see you!! This is in addition to the Zoom event on Tuesday, April 26, where the artists will speak about their work. I'll send the Zoom link Tuesday Morning.

 First I'm inviting you to a Zoom meeting about the 7 Days show on Tuesday, April 25 at 6pm EDT. It will last about an hour, you'll see a slide show and you'll hear the artists speak about their work. I'd love for you to come. I'll send the Zoom link Tuesday morning. Here is Day 7; "On the seventh day God rested and made it holy because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done." This is Jessica's Daydream, by Fran Beallor oil on canvas, 36x40 inches, 1988.  You can hear what Fran has to say about this beautiful painting on Tuesday. then we have 3 photographs by Malcolm Ritter. Do you remember the Crash Test Dummies and their song, "God Shuffled His Feet"?  It begins,  "After seven days, He was quite tired, so God said, Let there be a day just for picnics, with wine and bread. So He gathered up, some people he had made, Created blankets and set them in the shade."  That's what I think of when I see these pic

"Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning." That's how President Biden began his inaugural address, and that's how we feel this week. "You have turned my mourning into dancing; You have taken off my sack cloth and clothed me in joy." After putting our dear Lucy to rest, after a period of mourning, we conducted a nationwide search, never to replace her but to bring some joy back into our home.  This Tuesday we took a long drive and... This is Jacob Fisher, Jr. of Honey Brook, PA with Arthur and the puppy formerly known as Ollie, now  Russell Hudson Sherman.   Sam suggested that we name him Alan, and that's an old story.  Alan and Donna once had a cocker spaniel  named Barbara.  It was the nineties and the breeder must have been a Republican--she named a pair George and Barbara and it was too late to change it.  To make matters worse they then adopted a beautiful hound who just wandered into their yard and christened her Sally, so t

 Today is good Friday and we're in the midst of Passover and also the month of Ramadan.  I like to remember my first seder, when my friend, Linda, invited me to visit her parents in Florida to celebrate Passover, a holiday I didn’t know much about.  Her mother taught me to make gefilte fish and motzoh balls and how to set the table with the seder plate, and glasses of wine and a place set for Elijah. We had fun cooking together.                                                                                                Then we all sat down and began.  We opened the Haggadah; (The  Haggadah  is a  Jewish  text that sets forth the order of the  Passover Seder . Reading the Haggadah at the Seder table is a fulfillment of the  mitzvah  to each  Jew  to "tell your children" the story from the  Book of Exodus  about  Yahweh  bringing the  Israelites   out of slavery  in  Egypt ,  with a strong hand and an outstretched arm . As it is written in the  Torah , ("And thou sh