This is one of the many wonderful memories I will cherish from our recent trip to Scotland. We had the most animated conversation about a painting that proved much more interesting than it seemed on first glimpse. I recently read an article in AARP The Magazine titled “Slow Art,” in which AARP’s travel expert Samantha Brown admits to racing through many museums around the world. She’s beginning to wonder if she might have enjoyed those visits more if she had visited just one painting that felt special to her in each museum. I would tell her that it’s absolutely worth trying (and she can even choose two or three paintings,…
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Beasts and Blessings in Edinburgh
I miss having my morning porridge cooked and served to me as it was at Dunedin Guesthouse, our bed and breakfast in Edinburgh, Scotland. On our last day in Edinburgh, we walked a half-mile or so through a neighborhood of bungalows until we turned down a grassy lane… This is what we saw… “Oh my goodness. They’re huge!!! They look almost pre-historic!” We knew that if we walked a little bit farther, we would arrive at Prestonfield House, which is described on its website as a “ravishing historic hotel.” Ravishing! I’ve never heard that word used to describe a hotel. I was more interested in its life prior to…
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Nelson Mandela Place, Glasgow, Scotland
Walking for four days in Glasgow, Scotland, we explored city squares, art galleries, a majestic 600-year-old university, a grand old estate with a huge library and the largest basement servants’ wing we have ever seen. We got around on foot, via taxi, and a user-friendly underground system affectionately called “The Clockwork Orange.” On one of our walks, we looked up and noticed that we were passing Nelson Mandela Place. Bill then told Natalie and me what Andy, our Glaswegian friend, told him. I was so moved by the story that when we arrived back home in Los Angeles, I wanted to learn more. Here, then, is an inspiring and empowering…
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To Do Our Best, We Need to Feel Good
Researchers who look at work performance know that people perform better work and feel better about their work when four key needs are met: Physical, through opportunities to regularly renew and recharge at work; Emotional, by feeling valued and appreciated for their contributions; Mental, by being able to focus in an absorbed way on their most important tasks; and, Spiritual, by doing more of what they do best and enjoy most, and feeling connected to a higher purpose at work. A year ago, when I read a New York Times article titled “Why You Hate Work” by Tony Schwartz (chief executive of The Energy Project, a consulting firm) and Georgetown…
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Finding Passion in Our Days
Sometimes I find the most inspiring stories about people in the Obituaries section of the newspaper. Currently, my favorite obituary writer is Sam Roberts from The New York Times. I admire Mr. Roberts’ ability to capture the essence of a person’s life so well, in the same way that a portrait painter can sometimes capture a person’s soul on canvas. Recently, I read his beautiful obituary for Craig Ramini, who was only 57 when he died of complication of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Mr. Ramini was 52 when he found his passion. He was a Silicon Valley software consultant when he found himself in a midlife crisis. Quoted in Mr. Roberts’ obituary, his wife…
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Socks Are Just as Important as Shoes
I was fascinated by a recent photo series in Audubon Magazine. It displayed the contents of four nature photographers’ packed bags. I love seeing what people pack for trips. It’s a bit like seeing inside people’s houses on my nighttime walks. Just like you can tell a lot about people’s lives from pictures on walls and televisions on or off, you learn a lot by looking inside people’s suitcases. To give you an idea, here’s a photo of one of the photographer’s bags. Here’s the link to the article: https://www.audubon.org/magazine/may-june-2015/swag-bag. After studying the contents of each of the four bags, I made a curious observation. They each wear socks made…
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Writing as a Way to Cope with the World
Each time I see this painting, I remember writing an entire short essay sitting on our patio, while Natalie napped in her stroller next to me. I had observed behavior in a bathroom line at a movie theater that had disturbed me. Writing about it not only helped me get the “sinking feeling” off my chest, it helped me understand why I was so disturbed. The essay ended up being published in the Los Angeles Times. Today, I discovered the essay is still on-line and reading it made me realize that one of reasons I write is to cope with the world. I wrote this essay 17 years ago. A…
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Applying to College — Fun & Stressful
Having a child apply to college is both fun and stressful. For certain, it is a much more complex process than it was 40 years ago when I applied to college. At the same time, it’s a learning opportunity if one approaches it as a research project. It reveals so much about: family dynamics (can you get through the process in one happy and healthy piece?); attitudes toward education and learning in our culture (there’s a difference); and social equality (or lack of) in the wider culture and the college culture one is considering. Recently, Natalie overheard a high school senior tell a junior, “My advice is to visit…
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Something Like a Sabbatical (the film enters the world)
This weekend we will screen our newly completed documentary film SOMETHING LIKE A SABBATICAL to an audience for the first time. We’re so excited! The documentary film is the wise, funny, and inspiring story of Sue Mitchell’s 52-week sabbatical, when she decides it’s time to find out if she can be the artist she’s wanted to be for 35 years. Little does she know that 52 giant Montezuma Bald Cypress trees will become her teachers. Little does Riverside Art Museum realize how popular the four-month exhibit of Sue’s work will be a year later. In November 2013, we went to see Sue Mitchell’s “52” exhibit. A month later, we returned…
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A Painting Conjures Up a Memory
One of the reasons I love paintings is that they can trigger memories, sometimes even more effectively than photographs. Perhaps it is because the artist can bring to the composition his or her feeling about the scene being painted. Furthermore, light can communicate as much as composition. When I saw this painting by the Danish artist Carl Vilhelm Holsoe (1863-1935), it spoke to me immediately. At first, I thought it was because it stimulated the storyteller in me: the girl lives in a house where it is difficult to find enough light to read by. Thus, she has scooted her chair close to a window so that she can read her…
