My stepdaughter, Danielle Gura, teaches first grade in an inclusion class (the class is populated with both mainstream and special education children) in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Fifty-five percent of the children live in transitional housing (shelters). Approximately eighty percent of the school’s students qualify for free breakfast and lunch.  

Traffic recorded a song, Sometimes I Feel So Uninspired, that applies to so much when one looks around these days for leadership in the usual places.  

Imagine walking into a restaurant, bar or public place and no one is on their phone. Lot's of interaction...people talking smiling, arguing and sharing. It's unusual these days.   However, The Fat Boar, a pub in Wrexham, north Wales, is offering people 25 per cent off their food if they lock their phones away in a box on the table. They then have to hand the keys over to staff for the entire duration of their meal.  

One of my favorite songs is Dylan's Forever Young and my oft stated quest is to live to 100 and beyond.   With this as background, I was very pleased to receive a link (http://bit.ly/2HFR65V) to a TED talk from Judy Mauer on the subject of "The Strongest Predictor On How Long You'll Live". 

From 2016:   You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us. And the world will live as one. - John Lennon

  Over the past few days, amidst funeral plans, vigils and protests, we have seen the children, really young adults, of Parkland, Florida raise their voices.  

  Next week my husband and I are travelling to Charlotte, North Carolina and then on to Charleston, South Carolina. In researching what to do in Charleston-my good friend from high school lives in Charlotte so she’ll be our “tour guide” there-it became apparent to me how rich Charleston is in history, culture, and cuisine. It also became quickly obvious how different Charleston’s culture was to ours here in the Northeast.