Archive for: May 2007

At one of the elementary schools where I substitute teach, each Friday morning following the Pledge of Allegiance, Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” is played, and the majority of students sing along. The very first time this song came on and a classroom full of second graders belted out these patriotic lyrics, it took everything I had to hold back the welling tears. A year and a half later, it still does.

“I have all my life been considering distant effects and sacrificing immediate success and applause to that of the future.”   Frederick Law Olmsted

Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), known today as the “Father of Landscape Architecture,” was a brilliant landscape artist of the 19th century whose numerous well-known landscape projects include Central Park in Manhattan and the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C.  The unabridged list of his lifetime accomplishments is quite long. 

The song “My Generation” made popular in the sixties by The Who was recently re-recorded in the infamous Abbey Studios by The Zimmers, a new rock-n-roll group composed of 40 British seniors, whose members’ ages range from 69 to 100. 

To Live Life All Over Again — No Regrets
Private thoughts and even conversation among friends sometimes gets directed toward things we would do differently in our lives if we had the chance to do it all over again. To many of us, regrets, unlike the Frank Sinatra song, are more than just a few. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to do some things over, to re-experience youth just one more time with the wisdom we’ve earned in our mature years?