Words of Anne Frank

Miep Gies, the office secretary who defied the Nazi occupiers to hide Anne Frank and her family

The words of Anne Frank from 80 years ago touched me today, and I hope they have meaning for you: “It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquillity will return again." Let us be reminded of what is truly important in the midst of challenging and chaotic times, maintain our ideals, strive to better understand and work with each other, and keep fighting the fight. And follow the immortal words of John Wooden: “Things turn out best for the folks that make the best of the way things turn out.”

Satygraha: An Opera

Philip Glass Album artwork; credit: Luis Álvarez Roure: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

I spent the day after the election listening to music--I definitely need to bury my head in the sand for a while...I found solace in Philip Glass's opera Satygraha, which aside from its beautiful music and the visual feast of Julian Crouch's Metropolitan Opera production, also has a very relevant theme. Satygraha is made up of three acts, each dedicated to a key figure in the life of Mahatma Gandhi: Leo Tolstoy, Gandi's personal friend the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, and Martin Luther King. I saw it back in 2008, going two days in a row I was so mesmerized...If you ever get a chance to see it, go running...One of the best productions I have ever seen...Youtube is not the real thing but this six minute clip is better than nothing. Particularly apt today, the meaning of the word "satyagraha" according to Wikipedia, comes from the Sanskit: "सत्याग्रह; satya: "truth", āgraha: "insistence" or "holding firmly to"), is "holding firmly to truth",[1] or "truth force"--a particular form of nonviolent resistance or civil resistance.

Holding Vigil by Alison Luterman

HOLDING VIGIL by Alison Luterman

My cousin asks if I can describe this moment,
the heaviness of it, like sitting outside
the operating room while someone you love
is in surgery and you’re on those awful plastic chairs
eating flaming Doritos from the vending machine
which is the only thing that seems appealing to you, dinner-wise,
waiting for the moment when the doctor will come out
in her scrubs and face-mask, which she’ll pull down
to tell you whether your beloved will live or not. That’s how it feels
as the hours tick by, and everyone I care about
is texting me with the same cold lump of dread in their throat
asking if I’m okay, telling me how scared they are.
I suppose in that way this is a moment of unity,
the fact that we are all waiting in the same
hospital corridor, for the same patient, who is on life support,
and we’re asking each other, Will he wake up?
Will she be herself? And we’re taking turns holding vigil,
as families do, and bringing each other coffee
from the cafeteria, and some of us think she’s gonna make it
while others are already planning what they’ll wear to the funeral,
which is also what happens at times like these,
and I tell my cousin I don’t think I can describe this moment,
heavier than plutonium, but on the other hand,
in the grand scheme of things, I mean the whole sweep
of human history, a soap bubble, because empires
are always rising and falling, and whole civilizations
die, they do, they get wiped out, this happens
all the time, it’s just a shock when it happens to your civilization,
your country, when it’s someone from your family on the respirator,
and I don’t ask her how she’s sleeping, or what she thinks about
when she wakes at three in the morning,
cause she’s got two daughters, and that’s the thing,
it’s not just us older people, forget about us, we had our day
and we burned right through it, gasoline, fast food,
cheap clothing, but right now I’m talking about the babies,
and not just the human ones, but also the turtles and owls
and white tigers, the Redwoods, the ozone layer,
the icebergs for the love of God—every single
blessed being on the face of this earth
is holding its breath in this moment,
and if you’re asking, can I describe that, Cousin,
then I’ve gotta say no, no one could describe it
we all just have to live through it,
holding each other’s hands.

—from Poets Respond

Painting of the Week

Charity of the Week: Doctors Without Borders

About The Author

New York City based contemporary artist, Pam Smilow, began writing the creative lifestyle blog “things we love” in an effort to foster a sense of community during times of isolation and reflection. To read more about her and her art, visit her website and check out the essay written by Frank Matheis entitled The Sophisticated Innocence of Pam Smilow.