|
|
|
|
|
|
Local Life
Hiller walks, bikes, climbs the world for charity By LAUREN FRITSKY She's climbed a mountain (not Mt. Airy) and walked and biked more miles in seven years than some people cover in a lifetime. And she did it all at a time in life when most people slow down considerably. At the age of 63, Katherine "Kitsie" Converse not only has a new lease on her own life, but has helped improve the quality of life for countless others. Last summer, the long-time Chestnut Hill resident raised $12,500 for Paul Newman's Hole-in-the-Wall camps for kids with critical illnesses by walking 500 miles across Spain. Hole in the Wall Camps are the world's largest network of camps for children with serious diseases. They are a not-for-profit organization founded by actor Paul Newman in 1988. Over 70,000 children from 34 states and 27 countries have attended the camps free of charge. Her journey began in St Jean Pied de Port in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains in France and ended in Santiago, Spain. The path she walked is called the Santiago de Compostela, the second most... by BRETT HARRISON Every year, at some point between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve, people take stock of themselves and come up horribly short. I'm not really sure if this happens naturally or is an unfortunate side effect of the holiday season, but it happens. This shared epiphany inevitably results in one of the most unpleasant traditions of the holiday season after fruitcake and non-alcoholic eggnog: The New Year's resolution. Thousands of otherwise normal people suddenly, out of the blue, decide they aren't so normal and "resolve" to do something about it. It is an annual plague without equal in our time. Supermodel-type women are suddenly on track to lose 20 pounds by next month. People decide to spend more time with their... Christmas: sacrifice, not gluttony by CHRISTOPHER J. BACHLER Christmas. At no other time of the year do we think so much about giving. Does that mean that generosity should be confined to one special day of the year? And what does "giving" mean? Is it best exemplified by an annual ritual of exchanging presents? Is that what Christmas is all about? Is that what giving is all about? The spirit of giving endures. But it's also in decline. Consider the trouble that some major charities have in raising money. What's the problem? To some extent, changing public mores. The spiritual poison of materialism is nearly a national obsession, leaving less for philanthropy than ever before. To a greater extent, oppressive taxation leaves us less to give and less reason to do so. In part, we assume that government is addressing every need. But we are also hard-pressed to sympathize with those whose "entitlement" sentiment presumes the primacy of taker over giver. How can brotherly love thrive in an atmosphere of such petty selfishness? Perhaps the problem stems from a misunderstanding about what true giving really means. Giving is inspired by a personal desire to help another person. You are more concerned about that person's wellbeing than you are about your own bank balance. Giving no thought to personal rewards -- either in this world or in the next -- your desire to help is a reflexive act of love in which you place the wellbeing of that... How to tell if you're a Grinch The following was submitted by Marie Lachat, CHCA community manager, who found it at http:people.cornell.edu/pages/bs16/grinch.htm: ·You reuse last year's Christmas cards and send them out under your own name. (5 points) ·You steal light bulbs from your neighbor's outdoor display to replenish your own supply. (5 points, 10 if neighbor's whole light sets or lighted Santa goes out) ·You have dressed a dog or cat as Santa Claus, elf helper or reindeer. (10 points for each; if you dressed an endangered species, 5 extra points) ·You put out last year's stale candy canes for children (1 point for each piece of sticky candy). If you put out a chocolate or marzipan Santa also, add 10 points. ·You enclose a shoddy and inferior gift from Target, Wal-Mart, or... A rewarding afternoon of American music By MICHAEL CARUSO Smack in the middle of a raft of Christmas concerts, including one of its own, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society presented a pair of musicians performing a program that doesn't fit easily into any traditional category. Yet the recital filled the concert hall of the host institution, the Curtis Institute of Music, on Sunday afternoon, Dec. 19. During the last few decades, the team of Joan Morris & William Bolcom, mezzo-soprano/pianist and wife/husband, have brought to light an entire repertoire of songs about which most American concertgoers know little or nothing. In a country in which the great divide between classical and popular art, including music, is both more clearly defined and more vehemently defended than in Europe, the body of songs deemed "popular" from the turn of the 19th into the 20th centuries and onward in that they aren't "serious" as in "classical" contains within it some of the most enchanting and compelling pieces of music for voice and piano accompaniment. These scores range from naughty cabaret songs to delightful selections from operettas through beguiling numbers from Broadway musicals we now acknowledge as "classic" to stand-alone songs written by composers responding to the unique prompting of their individual music. A Morris & Bolcom program, always announced from the... |