We were sitting in music class at school, and our teacher was playing Mozart explaining that the music had lasted over 200 years. Under his breath, Don uttered, no wonder it stinks, just loud enough that the class burst into laughter! There were no consequences for the comment, but, as you see, I have remembered it all these years. This set me thinking of all the things that have come through the ages because they resonated with enough people so that they endured.

Many sayings, such as Carpe Diem (seize the day), Pro Bono (without charging), Alter Ego (the other me), and Bona Fide (genuine), are widely adopted, and some people may not even know where they came from. All this is just to say that we are the same species as we were over 2000 years ago.

Often I am asked if I am a scholar. Not really but I had the privilege of being raised by an intelligent single mother who exposed us (my sister and me) to traditions, civility, and a reminder we are but a part of a big whole.

Mother was 35 when, as a displaced person from WWII, she ended up in New Zealand with 2 children at her apron, and with bare essentials began the task of making sure she and her children survived. 

Our first furniture was fruit cases (wood in those days) for shelves and stools, initially beach furniture to sit in. We could not speak English; indeed, my first words were “Bacon and Eggs,” which I learned aboard a ship on the way from Europe to NZ. In the evenings, we would gather around to eat dinner and exchange new words we had learned. My mother’s favorite word was “bloody,” which she retained as her trade mark until she left this earth.