On the Bright Side

  For years, I have lived with a story that followed me everywhere - into libraries, archives, museums, and countless notebooks. What began as a curiosity about a forgotten woman of the Gilded Age eventually became a mission. Now, after years of research and writing, I find myself approaching the completion of the first draft of my novel about Ida Alice Flagler. For someone who loves research as much as I do, this is no small accomplishment. Give me a dusty archive, a box of old letters, or a forgotten newspaper clipping, and I am perfectly content. I have spent years chasing down fragments of Alice's life, traveling to places she lived, walking streets she once walked, and searching for the truth hidden beneath more than a century of myth and misinformation. Recently, while visiting New York's Hudson Valley, I found myself reflecting on that journey. Looking out at the Hudson River, visiting the historic homes and landscapes that shaped so many remarkable Americans, I was remi...

Every April, people around the world pause to recognize Earth Day, a day set aside to appreciate the planet and renew our commitment to caring for it. Communities organize beach cleanups, plant trees, and talk about protecting the natural world for future generations.  At its heart, Earth Day carries a simple but powerful idea: what we nurture today will shape the world tomorrow.  Today, environmentalism is often used as a shorthand for tribal identity. What began as a universal concern for conservation has been tilled into a political battlefield, and the seeds of division have been harvested in gridlock and resentment.   But the seeds of the modern environmental movement weren’t sown in a vacuum of ideology. In 1969, a massive oil spill off the coast of California galvanized the nation. That disaster became the catalyst for the first Earth Day in 1970, and this led directly to the creation of the EPA and the passage of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act under the...

Go Ask Alice. What is the bright side to a life that was lived from rags to riches to a life sentence at an asylum? Finding someone 100 years later to reclaim your story and reimagine the T he idea struck me during a tour of Flagler’s Whitehall Museum in Palm Beach. Whitehall was a wedding gift from Henry Flagler to his third wife, Mary Lily Kenan, after his second wife, Ida Alice Shourds, was institutionalized in 1895. Gilded Age buffs know that the reason the Standard Oil magnate came to Florida in the first place was due to the poor respiratory health of his first wife, Mary Harkness. And that Whitehall was a gift to his young new bride, Mary Lily Kenan. But little is known about his second wife, Alice, the wife between the two Marys. The docent led us up the staircase of the Grand Hall to the second-floor exhibits, informing us that “after the death of his beloved first wife, and having to put his second wife in a sanatorium, he finally found love again in Mary Lily… this is the La...

  People are asking that a lot lately, and unfortunately, the answer just seems to be, “It’s their fault.” The blame game  gives politicians plenty to exploit as they hope to rile us all up to vote this way or that. I see no sense in Republicans or Democrats claiming to know how to effectively govern in tumultuous times. This is a new historical moment. No one has the answers. None of us knows how to deal with global pandemics, artificial intelligence, and disinformation campaigns on the levels we are seeing today. No one. Because we have not been here before. We have, however, throughout the history of civilization, experienced tumultuous times. And we have not, historically, handled them well. It has been our human tendency to become ethnocentric to the detriment of entire peoples and continents. This we have seen again and again, and the rhetoric of politicians and political leaders around the world today is reminiscent of past turbulent times. From the invention of the whe...

The Beatles had it right from the git-go: Love is all you need. An early American promoter of Love Is All You Need was actually the first woman to run for president of the United States. No, it wasn’t Hillary Clinton! Victoria Woodhull was a Lady of Liberty back when actual liberty was reserved for those with political power. In 1872, Victoria Woodhull ran for President of the United States, nominated by the Equal Rights Party, with Frederick Douglass as a running mate (although Douglass never acknowledged he was on the ticket). The Equal Rights party of 1872 sought to forgive and reunite the suffragists with the African American civil rights activists after the disappointing exclusion of women from protection under the 15th amendment just a few years earlier. It was a tumultuous time politically. After years fighting the same battle for universal suffrage, the 15th amendment pitted men against women. Unfortunately, and sadly, unsurprisingly,  the powers that be at the time finally...

What is the bright side to a tragically lived life, with the last 30 years spent committed to an insane asylum, only to die without your true story every being told? Finding someone almost 100 years later to tell it! I realize it sounds a bit far fetched, but that is exactly what I plan to do. The idea struck me during a tour of Flagler’s Whitehall Museum in Palm Beach. Whitehall was a wedding gift from Henry Flagler to his third wife, Mary Lily Kenan, after his second wife, Ida Alice Shourds, was institutionalized in 1895. Gilded Age buffs know that the reason the Standard Oil magnate came to Florida in the first place was due to the poor respiratory health of his first wife, Mary Harkness. And that Whitehall was a gift to his young new bride Mary Lily Kenan. But little is known about his second wife Ida Alice, and her brief marriage to Flagler between the two Marys. The docent led us up the staircase of the Grand Hall to the second floor exhibits informing us that “after the death of...

Grit, resilience and rugged individualism are components of our collective American identity. We are warned that replacing “picking ourselves up by our bootstraps” with participation trophies and helicopter parenting has robbed this generation of the skills needed to succeed in a ‘dog eat dog’ world. To an extent that may be true. But is that the kind of world we necessarily want to live in? Can’t humans evolve from this Darwinian way of relating to one where allowing ourselves to be helped by others in times of weakness is a strength that propels all of us to a brighter future? An eternal optimist at best, and a bit ‘Pollyanna’ at worst, I realize this thesis leaves me open to criticism from those who will accurately point out the historical evidence to the contrary. Evidence to the tune of about the past, say…. forever years. But I love to imagine the possibilities of a compassionate, tolerant, nay, accepting, free-from-fear civilization where mutual respect for our differences trans...

Life is noisy. In the beginning, were amoebae saying, “What’s all that racket?!”  as each new species emerged on the planet? I bet they were. This spring we had a colony birds in our backyard that kept me up to the point that I was ready to buy a shotgun. The rosiest of shades were no match for this band of 3 a.m. squawkers! The only bright side was that some dear soul invented foam plugs which I promptly stuffed into my ears and cursed the bird gods for not getting this one right.  It’s not easy to tune things out. The next morning, I grabbed my coffee and the dog and headed out for my morning walk. In the early morning light, the noises that were my nemesis just a few hours before became music to my ears. Even the loudest squawker! I decided, if this were an orchestra, he’d be the oboe. There were caw-caws and cute little high-pitched chirpers; ducks and blue heron; and some of the happy noises were coming from squirrels running around in the trees. Which then helped...

Our world is changing at a pace we simply are not accustomed to. Just when we figure out how to use some piece of innovative technology, a newer version comes around making the old one obsolete. On a larger scale, the same is true for many of the jobs and institutions that have stabilized advanced societies since the end of World War II, making it difficult to keep up. The increased speed with which we humans are being asked to adjust to is shocking to our collective system. Future historians will analyze the forces at work at the turn of this century and, with the benefit of hindsight, will write books, teach classes and update curriculum so that future generations can learn from our mistakes. We, on the other hand, are living through it. Every day we are inundated with loud, frustrated, even angry people yelling at each other and blaming each other for something that, I believe, is really bigger than all of us. No one has “the answer” for how to “fix this” because, once again, we hu...

Globalization. Scholars weigh the pros and cons. Politicians take sides about how it impacts ‘us.’  You would think globalization is a 20 th century concept but, really, it’s been happening since the beginning of time. When you think about it, the center of anyone’s universe begins with the self. The extent to which our world expands and interacts with others depends on the transportation technology of the time period. We started on two feet, and now we have rockets. You get the picture. Roughly 2300 years ago, Alexander the Great traveled outside of his world and found that, in fact, there were some other pretty sophisticated places out there. He found powerful kingdoms in Egypt, Persia and India, sharing (and imposing) Greek culture with those he encountered and bringing with him some very cool items and ideas he found in each region. His travels and conquests resulted in a blending of cultures historically referred to as Hellenistic and it was the largest example of globaliz...

I have joined the ranks of what is commonly known the “Sandwich Generation.” My mom and dad are, fortunately, still very healthy, but they are midway through their seventies and the clock stops for no one. At the other end are my almost grown kids. Both in their twenties and living away from home, but nowhere near flying solo just yet. While they may not need me on a day to day basis, they most certainly still depend on my paycheck and health insurance. And my parents live in New York. They used to come visit me and my busy life, but they aren’t as foot loose and fancy free any more, so visits from them are less and less frequent. Ever wanted to be in two places at once? So I took a leap of faith and made a gigantic career move. I left the brick and mortar classroom for the virtual world! Technically I still have to work from Florida, but at least I can leave mid-day on Friday and come back early morning Monday and not miss a beat. This would have been impossible to do twice a mo...

There are very few places you can go today where the internet is not available at least in a local cafe and everyone, regardless of social class, has a cell phone. I’ve traveled enough to know that, even in some of the least developed cities, the internet is often better than the water. Except in Cuba. Cuba sits squarely on the cusp between two centuries. The cars famously remain from the pre-embargo heyday of American auto manufacturing and they are a sight to behold. Almost all of the taxis are some version of 1950s Chevy. And while tourists are apt to seek the perfect selfie, locals are virtually cell-free! No internet cafes, no GPS… just friendly people always willing to direct you or even show you how to get to where you want to go. Of course, everybody “knows a guy” who can get you what you are looking for, but that is the spirit in an emerging marketplace creeping ever so gingerly away from a command economy to a free market (think China in the early 1980’s).  Maybe Cu...

On the seventy-fifth anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, two political rivals came together to commemorate the “day that will live in infamy.” Both men served in combat during the second world war and were inspired toward a life of public service as a result. Then, despite being on the same side of the political aisle, they became bitter political rivals later. During the 1988 Republican primaries, Dole publicly confronted Bush, demanding he “stop lying about my record.” (If only this were still an example of bitter. But I digress..) Bush went on to win the general election and, despite their rough, gloves off campaign, Dole went on to serve as the senate majority leader in his administration. He explained, “Many people doubted I could serve the president since we had a rather rough campaign.” But that turned out not to be the case and the two put their differences aside and got to work. Dole explained that, “At that time you turned the page and said, ‘OK, I can either go backw...

My favorite New Year’s resolution started two years ago and is still going. I begin by writing down four annual goals. I figure one per quarter is reasonable, since these goals are above and beyond what needs to be accomplished in the grind of daily life. Then, on January first each year,  I put 52 marbles in a jar on and have a second, empty jar, next to it. Beginning on the first Monday of the year, and every Monday thereafter, I move one marble from the first jar and place it into the second jar. As the weeks and months pass, the marbles become a visual reminder of time passing by. Sometimes I will add mini-goals along the way, and allow one month to complete a task (clearing out my closet, for example). It works like a charm for knocking things off the To-Do list. Especially when I include a little reward for myself for meeting my goal. My newly organized closet now boasts an adorable mini-chandelier as a result of my focus and dedication. But there is a difference betwee...

It was challenging to decide what to write about for the November edition of the Happy Herald. Gratitude is always something that comes to mind as our country honors this emotion with a national holiday this month.That is a beautiful thing. But this is also an election year, which gives November another particularly distinct trait. An ugly one. So, I wondered if there was any way to find the beautiful in the ugly. First, I’m fairly confident I speak for all of us when I say I’ll be very grateful on November 9th that  the election is over. There were moments during the past few months when I honestly thought I was living in an alternate universe. But if I am, we all are so that a moot point. I do believe, however, that many of us are actually living in parallel ones. Unless you actually were in another universe over the past few months, I don’t need to tell you how incredibly awful the cacophony has been. It was so loud it was really difficult to hide from. But what really asto...

As our kids grow older, my husband and I like to take credit for the parts of their personalities that we are particularly fond of while claiming, of course, to have no idea where the not so impressive qualities could have come from. I would have to say that I’m a full-fledged Type B personality, while my husband is more like a Type A - Type B. Nothing rattles him, but he doesn’t exactly know how to relax. He’s always thinking about his next move, whether it is pre-downloading the next Netflix binge before a current series has ended or planning our retirement. He never sits still, but also rarely gets stressed about anything. I, on the other hand, though I too rarely get stressed, am more of a ‘roll with the punches’ kind of person. I’ve actually been quite proud of my ability to look on the bright side and accept life’s curve balls with grace. As for the kids, we have two boys, and one steers his life the way my husband does while the other rides the waves like his mom. Observi...

Staring at a blank page is a dreaded reality for writers. I have several projects in the works. I’m writing a children’s book, a novel, and researching other projects. At times it can be overwhelming, but not for the reasons you may think. I love research so much I could disappear in a library and never come out.  I have enough journals and rough drafts to fill ten libraries. But seeing a manuscript to completion is my achilles heel. I love the reasearch; I love the writing process…. What makes completing a project so difficult? I took a writing workshop this summer that helped me realize that the only thing getting in the way of my writing was ME! I realized that I have been placing an enormous amount of pressure on myself to live up to expectations that a) likely do not exist, and b) have nothing to do with me. My problem revealed itself to me as I was taking a train across New York state toward the end of the summer. Looking out the window at the old homes and mansions on...