Deciduous trees deal with the harshness of winter by stripping down to bare essentials, knowing there will be a time to leaf out eventually. Evergreen trees opt for an in-between stance, never fully bare, never in broad leaf, holding to their equilibrium through heat and ice the same.
What approach do you take to handle life’s seasons?
I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
—Martin Luther King, Jr.
When have you chosen love when hate might have been a more obvious choice?
One might more commonly imagine two men in ties clasping hands in a brisk, businesslike, handshake, rather than holding hands in affection and support. One might commonly forget that love and support appear in a variety of places where we might not expect them.
When has love and compassion come to you where you never expected it?
Tu B’Shevat is the Jewish New Year for trees. Why should trees get a new year of their very own? Why not? Something begins every time you notice trees first beginning to bud, or shifts of color as the twigs themselves take on the beginning of new life.
What in your life is at that point of first bud and new beginning?
All of true love contains good music. Or, perhaps, all of good music contains true love, although not necessarily of the romantic variety.
What music convinces you of the reality and power of love?
