The voice of my daughter Rachel, then age 30, who was living in New York City at that time, gave me the awful news. The first thing I said was, “Now there will be another war.” She said she was about to leave for work. Here’s a never-published poem I wrote afterward; all political thoughts left behind, I focused only on my dearest.

Carolyn Arnold was able to transform the story of her midlife recovery from a breakup into a readable and educational book, moving past the eat-pray-love model of experimentation and indulgence. This book both opens your heart and makes you think.

In light of the recent death of war criminal, torture advocate and former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the beautifully made film, The Mauritanian, reminds us of what we’d like to forget. Yet Guantanamo prison is still not closed after 20 years.

I’m pleased to say I’m one of 96 contributors to The Sitting Room’s 2021 anthology of art and stories. Each piece was limited to one page on the topic of “home.”  I share mine with you here.

This post is a shout-out one of my first cousins, Kym Frankovelgia, based in Illinois. A cabaret singer in the style of Streisand, Kym has spent much of her recent career working at elder communities. During the pandemic shutdown, she offered to create virtual mini-concerts for families who could not visit their loved ones in quarantine.