At our recent festival of community bands I recognized again, as if for the first time, bands’ roles in building senses of community. In its nineteen years, the Red Cedar Festival of Community Bands has brought together nearly 50 community ensembles for a day-long splurge of music-making that is free and open to the public. Bands pay registration fees and receive direct feedback from music clinicians. Musicians receive free master’s classes....

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I decided to take the AARP Safe Driving Course after a friend told me how much he learned from it. It’s widely available in group settings, but I took it online, in sections, over several days. That seniors sometimes have driving issues is a standing joke. Once, when I was eight, I went for a short trip with a grandfather. I laughed as I described the experience to my dad. He cringed. Then there is the hilarious opening scene in Driving Miss...

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We can’t imagine what it’s like being significantly older. When I started this column a decade ago, I promised to tell readers my experience with aging. Here’s what it’s like for me today. I completely retired nine months ago. When I wrote about the challenge of finding myself anew, some thought I was pulling their legs. G’wan, they’d say. Retirement’s a breeze. But several non-life threatening health issues were waiting in the wings for their...

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Obamacare is the ugly bastard offspring of an unloving Congress, conceived amid a vicious cycle of domination and one-upmanship. Obamacare’s gestation was hampered by Republican’s repeated attempts to abort it, without first denying that health care reform was needed or presenting an alternative for it. Since its chaotic birth, they’ve repeatedly tried smothering and starving it. If Obamacare survives, it will be a godsend. Millions who are...

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Amid the holiday glamour and glitter, some find moments for pondering life and taking stock of themselves and their lives. That sometimes leads to dark nights of the soul, where attempts are made to reconcile personal goals, beliefs and feelings with experience and reality. But moods are mostly light hearted leading up to the New Year and its custom of self-improvement resolutions like losing weight, becoming better organized, and enjoying life...

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This is my most wonderfully troubling time of year. I’m in heaven listening to traditional yuletide music while absentmindedly gazing at lights on our tree. But it’s vexing to be bombarded with Silent Night, Holy Night, from tinny speakers while shopping for tooth paste and dishwasher soap. Prior to the 18th Century, compared to Easter, Christmas was a relatively minor Christian holiday. Some thought it not proper to commemorate Jesus Christ’s...

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