To heal the world — I’d never seen a live performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Kaddish, so I jumped at the chance when our 13-year-old great niece performed in the Chicago Children’s Choir along with the Chicago Symphony Chorus, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, narrator Jaye Ladymore, and the magnificent soprano Janai Brugger. …

It would only serve food I like! — On an overcast, breezy day about five years ago, I walked to a nearby café to meet a friend for breakfast. It’s a café that serves great almond croissants, but I usually ordered hot chocolate and a baguette with butter and jam. That day, the bass and percussion-heavy music was…

Nine-year-old me would have LOVED them — I wish Sherrill Joseph’s award-winning books had been available when I was a child, devouring Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew mysteries. I would have begged the librarian to let me take out more than five books, and I’d have waited breathlessly until each new book in the series was available. …

Her first performance since suffering a brain aneurism in 2015 My heart is in my throat as I listen to Joni Mitchell’s surprise performance a week ago. I loved her music. Owned every album. Listened constantly, because she so often spoke just to me. …

By someone who conflates musicals “You’re going to love the music,” I said to my great-niece as we walked to the Cadillac Palace Theatre to see a production of Jesus Christ Superstar last night. “I remember humming the songs for weeks afterwards.” It was the early 1970s when I saw…

What do you write to an 11-year-old great-nephew at summer camp? Obviously not a letter. He’s not going to be interested in your boring life of writing all day (although you could mention the murders in your murder mysteries). He won’t care about preparations for your daughter’s upcoming wedding, the…

When I was just a girl I celebrated turning fifty with a pie party, surrounded by family and friends. There were twelve different pies (two of which included chocolate for those, like my husband, who don’t consider it a dessert unless it involves chocolate). I savored every pie. Since I…

William Steig’s Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, The Amazing Bone, and Dr. DeSoto I made a lot of mistakes raising my children, and there were some difficult times, but they turned into good-hearted, well-adjusted adults. I’m of the school that thinks babies are born with personalities, not as blank slates…

Please tag your article — Last month I joined an interesting sounding Read4Read group led by Indigo, and it’s fun, because Medium shows me too many authors who are more concerned with improving earnings than improving their writing. Indigo sends 10 new articles every day, some wonderful, most worthwhile. …