Beginning again. Again.
Walking. Morningside Gardens.
Treadmill. Gym at the Shire.
For Baltimore. For Puerto Rico.
Silver – Rick Ocasek
You Think You’re a Man – Divine
Baltimore – Audra McDonald
Baltimore – Nina Simone
Baltimore – Lyle Lovett
Baltimore – Randy Newman
Use Me – Bill Withers
Got to Give It Up – Marvin Gaye
All Blues – Miles Davis
Baltimore – Prince
I Know Where I’ve Been – Queen Latifah (Hairspray)
Afilando Los Cuchillos – Residente, iLe & Bad Bunny
PUTA – PJ Sin Suela
La Borinqueña – iLe (Facebook post during demonstration)
Lamento Borincano – La India (Twitter post during demonstration)
Delincuente – Farruko, Anuel AA & Kendo Kaponi
Yo Soy Boricua – Taino
Que Lloren – Ivy Queen
A Forgotten Spot (Olvidado) – Lin-Manuel Miranda, Zion & Lennox, De La Ghetto, Ivy Queen, PJ Jin Suela, Lucecita Benitez
Category Archives: Family
1 August 2019
29 July 2019
Treadmill. Gym at the Shire.
Walking. Morningside Gardens.
The Load Out/Stay – Jackson Browne
Calling All the Children Home – John McCutcheon
Home – Karla Bonoff
Bright Path – Jack Gladstone
O Little Town of Bethlehem – The Roches
I Hear a Symphony – Motown: The Musical
The President Sang Amazing Grace – Joan Baez
The Pony Man – Gordon Lightfoot
Finale – Come from Away
Raise You Up / Just Be – Kinky Boots
Waltzing Matilda – Seona McDowell
The City of New Orleans – Arlo Guthrie
Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring – Eileen Ivers
Third Movement of the Violin Conocero by Aram Khachaturian – Sean Koenig
Somewhere over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World – Israel Kamakawiwo’ole
Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond
What a Wonderful World – Louis Armstrong
Bridge over Troubled Water – Simon & Garfunkel
Filed under Exercise, Family, Music, National Park, playlist
4 July 2019
Happy Birthday to my sister Patty.
Walking. Morningside Gardens.
Mary’s Boy Child – Harry Belafonte
Do You Hear What I Hear – Ed Ames
The Sound of Silence – Simon & Garfunkel
I Dreamed a Dream – Les Miserables
Orinico Flow – Enya
To Each His Dulcinea – Man of La Mancha
Our House – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught – South Pacific
The Pony Man – Gordon Lightfoot
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down – Joan Baez
Let the River Run – Carly Simon
Boris the Spider – The Who
American Pie – Don McLean
Eye of the Tiger – Survivor
Oh, What a Beautiful Morning – Alfred Drake
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – Elton John
Fields of Gold – Eva Cassidy
2 July 2019
Happy Birthday, to my brother Paul.
Walking. Morningside Gardens
Hello Muddah Hello Faddah
Seven Bridges Road – The Eagles
Nostradamus – Al Stewart
The Tears of a Clown – Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
I Got a Name – Jim Croce
This Is the Time – Billy Joe
Shut Up and Dance – Walk the Moon
Day by Day – The Hooters
Fool’s Parade – Michael Stanley Band
Thunder Island – Jay Ferguson
Classical Gas – Mason Williams
Icarus – Kansas
Fishin’ in the Dark – Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Toto – Africa
What Is Life – George Harrison
Desperado – Linda Ronstadt
Under Pressure – David Bowie & Queen
Pride March 2019
Photos and videos of the New York City Pride March shared by family members and friends have touched and blessed me. Next year I will take vacation so I can participate.
My son posted a photo of a hate group with hate signs. He noted that they represent one reason why Pride remains needed. I offered ten points in response to him and to any one who was touched by hate because of their sexual orientation or gender identity today or any day.
- You are right. Pride is a necessary response to such hate.
- I am sorry you are right. I am sorry such thinking still exists. We are working to change it.
- We have work to do. I have work to do.
- These people are wrong.
- These people are [fill in your favorite colorful metaphor here].
- On the off chance that these people are … wait … see number 4.
- Love is stronger than hate and fear and anything else in all creation.
- Love is even stronger than stupidity.
- Each person is precious, beloved, beautiful. Just as the person is.
- I love you.
Happy Pride, son. Happy Pride, friends. Happy Pride, All.
Filed under Current Events, Family, Friends, Human Rights
Advocacy Training Day 2019
The Advocacy Training Weekend, held this year on April 5 through 8 in Washington, DC, consists of three parts. A training day for Presbyterians by the Compassion, Peace, and Justice Ministry Area. Ecumenical Advocacy Days. And visits to elected representatives to advocate for justice. This year’s advocacy focused on protecting voting rights and working for peace in fragile countries. The weekend is a wonderful time for networking with old colleagues and meeting new friends.
This year had the added treat that my daughter-in-law, Essie Koenig-Reinke, attended.
Filed under Current Events, Family, Human Rights, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
27 March 2019
Early. Gym at the Shire. Treadmill. Stretching.
This playlist gives thanks for Sean and extends his birthday celebration.
Third Movement of the Violin Concerto by Aram Khatchaturian, arranged for flute – Sean Koenig
Hello Dolly – Hello Dolly
I’ve Decided to Marry You – A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Marriage
Down on MacConnachy Square – Brigadoon
Seventy-Six Trombones – The Music Man
Yorktown – Hamilton
Wouldn’t It Be Loverly – My Fair Lady
We Dance – Once on This Island
For Good – Wicked
Sunrise, Sunset – Fiddler on the Roof
Raise You Up/Just Be – Kinky Boots
Eye of the Tiger – Survive
Spicy cauliflower & Dijon salmon
I’m trying to do better at self-care. This means a deep reduction in the Seamless orders and some cooking on my own. It’s not my best thing, but I am getting there.
Traveling with Tricia for our 40th anniversary reminded me of how much I like cauliflower. I have always liked salmon. Now I am trying to figure out how to cook both of them.
This was my meal on March 23.
After – Albuquerque 1996
After the prayers had been said
and the motions had been made;
after the rulings had been dispensed
and the speeches had been delivered;
after the instructions had been given
and the buttons had been pushed;
after the votes had been tallied
and the results announced;
after the passion
and the decent order;
after . . .
. . . the assembly sat in quiet contemplation,
pondering who had won
and who had lost,
considering what was gained
and what the cost.
My heart sundered the silence,
breaking, softly breaking,
for those, who by official action,
had been denied their full humanity,
and, whose gifts, but that same official action,
had been rejected.
A tear slid down my check,
coming to rest in tangled whiskers.
A single tear
shed for those beloved of God
who the vote would exclude
and for those
who out of fear
or prejudice
or lack of love
or for whatever reason
sought to shut doors –
and build walls –
and keep out –
and settle once and for all;
and in so doing
lost an opportunity
to join in
God’s amazing,
welcoming,
including,
affirming,
door-opening,
wall-smashing,
never-ending
love.
This was written after the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s 208th General Assembly (1996). That assembly met in Albuquerque, New Mexico and took action to recommend a change the church’s constitution that would ban LGBTQ individuals from serving in ordained offices. I attended that assembly as an observer. As the United Methodist Church meets to wrestle with similar questions, I remembered this piece and choose to share it.
Filed under Current Events, Family, Friends, Human Rights, Poem, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
For family
At the request of a family member,
I added a happy photo.
I think the shirt will be appreciated too.
Along the Graybeard Trail 