In the music world, organists are low-on-the-totem-pole. I first discovered this in Conservatory and found it an interesting reversal of organists’ roles in the period between roughly 1600 – 1900. During that time, virtually all composers were organists (completely the reverse of today), organists had the most sure employment possibility of all musicians (the Church), … Read more
In 1884, the Tennessee Supreme Court articulated an employment at will doctrine that would eventually be adapted throughout the entire United States (with the sole exception of Montana). With this doctrine, which soon was written into each states’ laws, an employer could dismiss an employee at any time, for any reason, or for no reason. … Read more
One of my favorite opening lines of literature is from Dante’s Divine Comedy – “Midway along the journey of our life, I woke to find myself in a dark wood for I had wandered off from the straight path. … But if I would show the good that came of it, I must talk about … Read more
Picture New York in January. Even for New Yorkers, like me, it’s the time of year when everyone is anxious to get away and distance themselves from the bitter cold, wind, messy snow, grey, and general dreariness of the heart of winter. In January 1987, I escaped to San Francisco for a holiday with two … Read more
Cathedrals & a Royal Peculiar I’ve always thrived on pressure. Perhaps it’s the residual effects of having worked as a triage secretary in a hospital Emergency Room while in college, or perhaps it’s just my particular constitution. But in the music world, one’s ability, or inability, to remain calm and flexible under extremely stressful situations … Read more
A few hours after posting my last blog, I was fired. It wasn’t the first time I’d been fired from a church job; it was actually the fifth! So the psychological pattern that would follow was well-known: shock from being broadsided, anger and desire for vengeance, long aftermath of depression and self-doubt. But this one … Read more
Although I don’t recall the actual circumstance, part of our family lore is that when I was three years old, sitting next to my mother at church (Presbyterian Church on the Green in Morristown, NJ), when the organ started to play, I leaned over to her and told her: “When I grow up, I’m going … Read more
“Ce n’est pas moi qui fait le chemin, c’est le chemin qui me fait.” (“It’s not me that makes the Way, it’s the Way that makes me.”) Every place we stopped for the night, from gîtes to chambres d’hôte to AirBnBs, all have little sayings scattered around the walls. They’re there to make you … Read more