arrange • compose • conduct
I love yesness. But it can be a liability. Yesness is that attribute is possessed by people who are willing to try new things, go where leaders direct, and generally approach life without a neon NO over their heads. When does yesness become a liability? When yes people consistently take […]
It’s important to say thank you. Even to yourself. Every time I get a jar of last summer’s strawberry jam from my pantry and start spreading it on sandwich bread, I take a second to thank past me. June 2022 Jed worked very hard on that jam in the summer […]
Have a vision for what you want to create, and take steps to create it, but don’t expect it to happen as soon as you’re ready for it to happen. How much you want to change and how much you can change are two different things. When you enter a […]
Are you looking forward or backward? It’s a time of reflections and resolutions. I know some who focus on reflections – working to understand and learn from their successes and failures. I know others who focus on resolutions – looking ahead to what they hope and intend to do in […]
It’s poetry time. Let the prose wait for a week. A celebrate quote from former New York governor Mario Cuomo states, “You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.” I don’t know about the work of politics, but I do think that prose and poetry do have seasons. The week […]
On blackbirds, silences, and eves. I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling Or just after. Wallace Stevens, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, V. Wallace Stevens gave us two choices, but I’m not sure that I don’t prefer the third option: […]
Want to feel productive and conscientious this Winter Break? Ultra Delay Send. I just sent a work email that won’t arrive until the first day back from school after New Year’s. I got the email off of my to do list, and it won’t go onto my colleague’s to do […]
That’s how I view great singing. Or is it miraculously ordinary? Whenever I hear an amazing singer for the first time, or hear a singer I know do something incredible, I think, “Isn’t it miraculous? That a human can master all the skills necessary to do what they just did.” […]
Do you plan your return to health in your head? Like, “I’m feeling crummy today, but I’m sure I’ll feel better tomorrow.” I have been burned by this mindset more than once, because I’m always overly optimistic in terms of how quickly I’ll heal from a cold. I resume my […]
Why do we prefer performances without concentration face? It’s okay to be able to tell a performer is working hard, but it has long been clear to me that audiences prefer performances that look effortless. Part, I think, is relatively recent: just as presidential candidates had to be “good on […]