10/22/2022

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            Happy Saturday! It looks like you will have a lovely day in DE to take a bike ride & walk on the beach. You could even head down the coast to Bennett Orchards & pick some apples.

            While we don’t have apples here in Village Homes, we have plenty of pomegranates so I am juicing them for a “wild ferment” where I use a splash of fresh grape juice to inoculate the batch with some wild yeast. The concoction gets fizzy in the fridge within a couple of days & becomes a gorgeous, magic elixir. Stop by for a taste next time you are in the neighborhood.

            I got a lift this AM from reading about Shinichi Suzuki (SS) in a WSJ article that my BFF shared with me. SS’s ideas about teaching little kids violin are similar to the latest ideas about teaching math. As the article says, “we all come into this world equipped with a tremendous capacity to learn, & we can all become talented in our own ways…talent is not a static, inborn quality like eye color. Rather, it is a muscle that can be developed & strengthened regardless of genetics.” SS had an intuitive understanding of oxytocin because he required group lessons to impress “on youngsters the joy of making music with their peers.”  

            Learning difficult things like violin & math support children in developing what SS called, “noble hearts.”

            The youth in our world will need noble hearts to face the challenges of climate change & the social upheaval that it is causing. As you know, I am especially concerned with the children in Burma who are not getting an education right now. I am not sure that putting the junta on the Global Illicit Finance List will make things better for the children. What do you think?

            BYBS,