SCHOOL BELLS RING, ARE YOU LISTENING?

While during the isolating months of the pandemic, I did not literally sit in a classroom, I did have a wonderful array of learning opportunities to open my mind. Thanks to a plethora of Zoom experiences, I have learned about a multitude of people and places, back in history and currently influential. In the world of art, I have followed the tortuous life of Vincent Van Gogh, walking through his sunflowers and irises as he traveled from Holland to France to pursue his dreams. He only sold one painting, of a doctor, in his lifetime. What might he think of the millions being bid at the world’s leading auction houses today? Pablo Picasso is the next artist on my study list, who became an international icon, traveling from his native Spain to Paris. Starting at the age of 7 or 8, he worked until his death at 92. This lively, colorful painter created Cubism as he used dancers, circus performers, still life and café patrons to illustrate his art. Along the way, I’ve learned how to make crispy rice, challah and cookies like hamantaschen. The new book “The Jew-ish Encyclopedia” was unveiled as well as how the actor Steven Skybell as Tevye became the Yiddish Texan. I’ve heard talks by actresses Natalie Portman and Mayim Bialik and political figures like Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Memorials and tributes to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg were on my agenda as well as lectures on the Holocaust, anti-Semitism and Black Lives Matter. Area theaters have been streaming new plays and revivals in workshops like Playhouse on Park’s “School Girls” and “Becoming Dr. Ruth” at Music Theatre of CT, in addition to talks on the movies of James Bond at the Mark Twain House and the Irish Repertory Theatre’s “Love, Noel” in praise of Noel Coward. The comic genius of Mike Nichols was lauded as well as the Jewish art creations of Jeanette Kuvin Oren. In addition, I’ve taken a tour of Israel and a marvelous tour of Italy with host Alex Polizzi, returned to Anne Frank’s Amsterdam attic hideaway and walked through the White House thanks to Jackie Kennedy. Our country’s first and second First Ladies, Martha Washington and Abigail Adams, shared their insights guiding their husbands in our new country while the American Liver Foundation celebrated its 45th anniversary of its good works and liver research in Connecticut. Author James Patterson previewed his latest book about today’s military in true stories of courage while the ancient story of the Jewish holiday of Purim was reenacted by a bank of masked singers led by Tovah Feldshuh as narrator. In this trying time where compassion, kindness and empathy are so important, I listened to the words of Brandon Farbstein who abandoned his 3'9'' body to become Ten Feet Tall, Pamela Rae Schuller who uses her Tourette’s Syndrome to create humor and Judy Heumann who has made her disability from polio a platform to change minds and make new laws. All in all, I feel like I am a college student earning my master’s degree once again, only this time with my designated homework assignments no longer due on deadline.