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Zoom culture

Our Thanksgiving celebration was rather strange this year. Normally we would get together with twenty or so friends in a local neighborhood park for our annual outdoor Thanksgiving lunch, with everyone bringing food to the communal table. This group was started some twenty years ago by my book club friend, Linda, who noticed that so many of her friends were alone on Thanksgiving, having moved to Miami and having no family here. We joined that group ten years ago as soon as we moved to Florida.

2021-01-04 14:38

You'll never walk alone

The other day, while I was driving to do some errands, the car radio played “You'll Never Walk Alone,” the well-known show tune from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Carousel,” more recently sung by Andrea Bocelli. I saw Bocelli on stage last year in Miami and am a great fan. Perhaps that's why I paid closer attention to the lyrics. This persuasive chant, designed to lift up the soul lost in despair, has a lingering power.

2020-12-02 16:50

What made you smile today?

For the past eight months, most of us in the United States have been sheltering in place and avoiding meeting people. Whenever we meet our friends, we stay outdoors, maintain social distancing, avoid hugging and other contact, and keep our face masks on. We are cautious about going indoors where social distancing is more challenging.

2020-11-05 16:39

Day of atonement

Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, began at sunset on Sunday, Sept. 27 and ended at sunset on Monday, Sept. 28. On this Day of Atonement, Jews ask God for forgiveness for their sins, as they forgive those who have done wrong to them during the year. They observe the holiday by fasting. During this time, Jews attend worship services in their synagogues where the machzor, a prayer book used during the High Holy Days, is read and specific prayers are recited. At the end of the services, a shofar or ram's horn is blown to signal the end of Yom Kippur. Then they can break their fast ...

2020-10-14 17:05

Nature versus nurture

A virtuoso American actor best known for his portrayal of the king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda in the movie “Black Panther” died last month at age 43 after privately battling colon cancer for four years. Chadwick Boseman's other iconic roles included the legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson in “42,” singer James Brown in “Get On Up” and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in “Marshall.”

2020-09-04 16:54

Lost and found

One day, years ago, when we lived in New Jersey, we were returning from Manhattan after seeing a Broadway show when I spotted a woman's pocketbook lying on the side of the road. We were able to stop the car and retrieve it. We called the woman using the identification in her wallet, and she came to meet us and reclaim her property. She was an Israeli without much English so she couldn't explain how she had lost her purse, which remains an intriguing mystery. But we were glad to be able to return her things to her.

2020-08-21 17:00

One of a kind

Fifty-one years ago, on July 20, a lunar module separated from its command module landed on the Moon. It took another six hours before astronaut Neil Armstrong was ready to take his historic first step down to the place they named Tranquility Base. Nineteen minutes later, Buzz Aldrin joined and for more than two hours, they collected 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of materials to bring back to Earth. Meanwhile third astronaut Michael Collins flew alone in lunar orbit and waited for the lunar landing module to rejoin him. Four days later they splashed into the North Pacific on July 24, 1969. Total sta...

2020-07-24 17:05

'Seven Up'

Every Thursday, I try to get up around 5 a.m. I participate by Zoom in the morning worship of Miami Joonim Church at 6 o'clock. Then I freshen up the agenda I wrote up the previous night for the Rotary Club of Bal Harbour's weekly meeting, also via Zoom. At 8 a.m. I open the meeting as the current president with the Pledge of Allegiance. In the pledge, we remind ourselves that we are aware that America is one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

2020-07-10 17:22

Life coaching

June 19th is called Juneteenth in the States. News of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, issued on January 1, 1863, was officially proclaimed in Galveston, Texas on June 19th, 1865, about two months after the Confederate army surrendered. More than 200,000 African Americans in Texas heard the news from a Union general on June 19, 1865. This came to be called Juneteenth Independence Day, Freedom Day and Emancipation Day.

2020-06-26 17:47

#BlackLivesMatter!

I grew up in Korea and left for the States in 1969 when I was 22. Up to that point I had met only one African-American. Tom was one of the U.S. Peace Corps volunteers teaching English at a Korean university. The Peace Corps program in Korea began in 1966 with the first group, K-1, and ended in 1981 with K-51. About 2,000 served during these fifteen years, working mostly in education and health but also in other fields.

2020-06-12 17:06

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