A few weeks ago my wife came home after volunteering at the St. Vincent de Paul food pantry enthusiastic about something she’d heard. A lady had come for her monthly box of food. “She was bubbling with excitement,” my wife said, “most people who come to the food pantry are not bubbly at all. They are usually pretty beaten down by the circumstances that force them to have to ask for help. But not this lady.” “I am moving into the most beautiful apartment I have ever seen. It is brand new and has a kitchen, bedroom, living room and has all new furniture,” she said. “It’s just in town on Elm Street and I can’t believe how lucky I am to have such a wonderful place to live.” This experience was s
Urban Sketching On July 2 the United States Army Field Band, “The Volunteers,” performed a concert at the Rotary Pavilion in Faurot Park. It was a coolish evening, sunny for a change, in the low 70’s. By the time I got to the pavilion there must have been 200 people scattered all over the big grassy area in front of the stage. While most of the people looked well over retirement age, there were a few families with young children scattered among all of the lawn chairs. The predominant colors, as you can imagine, were red, white, and blue and many of the older men wore ball caps with their branch of service or the war or conflict they fought in embroidered on the front. That evening I decided
Who would have guessed that just by telling stories we can help our children and one another not only gain access to our whole brain but also come to discover solutions to problems that we thought were insolvable. Interested? Here's how it works. Our brain is divided into two halves: the left brain – logical, literal, linguistic, and linear, and the right brain - intuitive, holistic, and emotional. The left is the scientist and the right is the artist. The simple act of storytelling (putting words onto emotions) creates connections between the fun loving right and the more serious left. In my childhood my sainted mother regarded “storytelling” as something to be avoided. “Do not tell storie
