"One thing at a time"

 No words are sufficient to describe the work of Handel and Messiah that he wrote in such a short time. Messiah was composed in 1741...yes, it is a bit ago. The first performance was apparently in Dublin and later in London.  In 2020, the year of Pandemic, we still enjoy Handel and his work. Christmas season is especially precious in terms of music that we add to our festivities welcoming the birth of Christ.  Our family, all of us, definitely enjoy Music in all shapes and sounds. We have been so blessed to have a pianist who can play things his parents can't play. We are also blessed to have a high quality Grand Piano, our miracle Steinway.  Someone requested Erik if he could play this piece for a service and he worked on it for weeks to prepare. On the 20th of Dec, 2020, he performed it as a postlude after a Christmas Service. I enjoyed listening to it during the Service so I did not record it. I asked him if he would let me record it at home later in the evening. ...

This afternoon, I was looking for a particular book that I needed for my writing project. While looking, I found another book on my shelf that I had not picked up for years, and it stopped me,, for a good reason. What a journey I have had in terms of friends,,,,and how true this book is. This book was a gift from one of our neighbors for my third birthday in July, 1969. I have a distinct memory of my third birthday party my mother had for me at our house when we lived in the University Housing at the University of Wisconsin (Madison WI). I remember that the family who gave me this book lived a few doors down from us and had two boys a bit older than me. The university housing was likely a cluster of very small duplex housing for many young researchers and their families, but my memory of this is that the house was roomy with living room, Several neighbors were foreign researchers from India, Germany, or Japan like my father was. There were also many young US families at the Universit...

No human, to our knowledge is immune to COVID19. This VIRUS, I will call Mr. V does not differentiate anyone from the members in the Royal Court to an Ordinary like myself.  But some of us are more vulnerable and some of us are more protected. Some of us are surrounded by the resources to fortify the protective walls around us, but some are more vulnerable due to their unfortunate physical conditions, simply their age, or their choices to smoke (per Chinese data, Smokers are at a super high risk to get severely ill if Mr. V visits you and stays with you. No data exists as of the date of this writing about Vaping, but we all know Vaping does not help your lungs at all, so I would consider it a high risk personal practice). And, some are also highly vulnerable because they refuse to accept information and take actions accordingly. If you think you are fine because you are healthy, you may redefine the meaning of what healthy is from the perspective of Mr. V. No lev...