Thanksgiving and a Request

Robin Chung with kids

Robin Chung with kids during her profound journey

One Hundred Cows

I’ve often referred to Dan Woog’s blog 06880. Dan keeps me abreast of Westport news and people. As his tagline says, he posts “Where Westport Meets the World.” Occasionally he’ll have a guest post, as he did last week.

He prefaced the story by telling us that “Robin Moyer Chung is the editor/writer for Westport Lifestyle magazine, and a lyricist, book writer and blogger. Her musical, “The Top Job,” is produced around the world.”

You can read her description of what she called “her profound adventure” in Dan’s blog. I loved his including it during the American Thanksgiving week.

Thanksgiving in Our House

Dancing while cooking – Mary and Beth

We had a lovely Thanksgiving Day. I made my favorite cranberry relish a couple of days ahead. On the day the turkey and ham were my responsibility.

My daughter made the fried corn and sweet potatoes while her daughter Nkiru peeled and sliced apples. Grandson Kenechi’s girlfriend Mary brought pumpkin pie and cranberry fluff. She fried chicken, cooked the green beans and prepared apple crumble.

The counter space in the kitchen was full while everyone worked. But there was time for a little dancing during the food prep!

At the table; Mary was the photographer so she’s not in the pic.

Mary thought we’d be ready to eat by 5:15, while I predicted 6! Guess who was right!

Music Has Universal Patterns?

Another blog I read is by Mount Holyoke Professor Emeritus Vinnie Ferraro. I’ve quoted him before too. His topic is World Politics.

But today he included a link to an article about the universality of musical patterns.

The article says, “Music was broadly found to be associated with behaviors including infant care, dance, love, healing, weddings, funerals, warfare, processions and religious rituals.” That in itself is not so surprising.

What surprised the researchers who collected music from over 60 extremely varied societies around the world? They found that “there is some sort of set of governing rules for how human minds produce music worldwide.”

African lullaby

One of the study’s writers “noted that lullabies tended to be slow and fluid across societies while dance songs tended to be fast, lively, rhythmic and pulsating.” Vinnie said he is still not convinced, but will await more research. I, on the other hand, am completely convinced.

The study concludes that music is not solely determined by the culture that produces it but by its function. Makes sense to me! What about you?

You can read Vinnie’s comments in his blog.

My Request

Almost every night, when my husband has gone to sleep (he needs more sleep than I do) and I want 45 minutes or so to take my mind off the days’ concerns and tasks I didn’t finish, I have a glass of wine and watch an episode or two of a show on Netflix or another streaming service.

A couple of weeks ago I came to the end of Mad Men. I watched the two seasons of Unbelievable. Both had their own troubling scenarios but plenty of drama! I’m not ready to resume The Good Doctor or Gray’s Anatomy.  Last night I caught up partially on Grace and Frankie.

But I want another one that has several seasons and holds my attention! What is your suggestion?

Author: Catherine Onyemelukwe

Author, blogger, speaker. Born in New York, grew up in mid west United States, lived in Nigeria for 24 years, back in U.S. since 1986. Advocate for racial justice.

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