Category Global health and disparities
FMM 8 13 2021 Our patchwork life
“Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.” ~ Stephen Sondheim. My grandfather (whom I never met since he died some years before I was born) was a truck driver. He left school at the age of twelve, and his first job was to stand outside a grocery store (where there […]
FMM 8 6 2021 Twist and Shout
“Stories teach us empathy. They reveal to us ourselves in the skins of others.” ~ Justin Simien. Last week, in the middle of a Zumba session, the music changed from a Latin focus to good old-fashioned rock and roll. Soon we were rocking around the clock and twisting the night away. I remembered that before […]
FMM 7 16 2021 Lift the Curse!
“Nobody gets justice. People only get good luck or bad luck.” ~ Orson Welles. Mother-daughter relationships are tricky. I am not one of those who can say my mother was my best friend. Perhaps it’s a generational thing, but it never occurred to me to ‘tell my mother everything’. As a matter of fact, I […]
FMM 7 9 2021 Triangulation
“You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.” ~ Desmond Tutu. I don’t know when I first realized that I was good at Math, or at least found the manipulation of numbers to be fun. I remember being given a book of math puzzles, I think they […]
FMM 6 25 2021 That’s Insane!
“Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness.” ~ Allen Ginsberg. When I was growing up in Chapelton, Jamaica, there was a man from the area who was considered mad. It was fairly obvious, as he could be seen from time to time hitting his head against light poles. Of course, since we couldn’t understand […]
FMM 6 18 2021
“The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.” ~ Anatole France. We all know at least one child that seems to ask a thousand questions a day. One of mine was peppering me with questions as I got ready […]
FMM 6 4 2021 Message in the Sky
“Music is the message of peace, and music only brings peace.” ~ Zubin Mehta. I don’t know when I first realized that my father could be many things to many people. On Sundays he was ‘Parson’, solemnly conducting the church service; bellowing out hymns with his strong tenor voice; quietly leading the church in prayer; […]
FMM 5 21 2021 Comfort over Fashion
“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” ~ Aristotle. I don’t remember being very fussy about clothes as a child. As the youngest I inherited most of my ‘gently worn’ outfits. I remember one dress in particular. It had not been handed down from my […]
FMM 5 7 2021 You better ‘preciate!
“Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.” ~ Karl Barth. This week I am wrapping up a ‘Spring Break’ – a week off between semesters, where it is often hard to truly ‘break’ away. Finals’ week is always hectic, with unexpected slowdowns and distractions. Can electronic gradebooks be trusted? Out come calculators and old-fashioned computations, […]
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