Several days after the miscarriage, came home to find Toni sitting up on the bed, book in her lap.
But not reading.

Anticipating baby’s arrival all-consuming.
Now missing.

I sit on the bed and ask the question hanging unspoken.
I’m heading to Law School.
What do you want to do when your school is out?

Hadn’t considered a ‘what if?’
Her look asked me if I had any ideas.
No hesitation there.
Our lives as students together so fine.
Why not stay in school?

Get a master’s?
Why stop there? You have Ph.D. stamped on your forehead.

Doldrums?

She sat erect.
Picked up her head and, enlightened, looked to me for clarification.
For conversation.
Annotation.
Elucidation.

Apply to grad school? she asking.
Yes, of course.

Still plan to have children?
The ideas unrelated.

Too late for next year?
No. Right on time.

What if school is far away?
We have plenty of school options right here and we have a car.

And so grad school became a rich source of conversation.
Along with a teaching career.

We should plan on having our children in the summer, while school is out.

In the event, Toni Lee was accepted into Brandeis University on a full scholarship.
She qualified for her doctorate four years later during which time she gave birth to two children, our third born shortly thereafter.
Born in early September, the day before classes and her first job as a student teacher, June, right after classes ended, and August, no sweat there
She landed a tenured appointment teaching Rhetoric at Boston University immediately upon receiving her doctorate.

Three small boys, a law career, an academic career.
Plenty of conversation fodder.
No time for doldrums.

____________________________________________
Tagging Today
Saturday, December 15, 2018
My 247th consecutive posting, committed to 5,000.
Time is 12.01am.
Boston’s temperature will reach a high of    with a feels like of     with sun and clouds.

Dinner is Roast Turkey. While I always buy all of my meats from Whole Foods because of their commitment to the humane treatment of the animals they buy, Costco was offering ten-pound, organically-raised Butterballs for .99 cents a pound. Irresistible. I bought one.
Hope it cooks well.

__________________________
Question of the Day:
What is gospel music?

_______________________________
Love your notes.
Contact me @ domcapossela@hotmail.com 
 
Here’s Tommie gloating over the fine weather in Columbia, SC:

As stated previously, flip flops, shorts, and a T-shirt! I might add sun glasses and sun screen. My favorite mode of dress. The Southern way nine months out of the year.

And her response to the Hot Pot:

Dom, your hot pot sounds wonderful. Wish I were there to eat it with you! (except for the crustaceans and shell fish to which I am allergic but love!) Nothing better than a hot pot on a cold winter's evening! 

Web Meister Responds: Say that again! And each time we make it it’s different from the last.

answer

____________________________________
Short Takes: Life
I am passing along a caution sent from a blogger.
I posted several days again that during the winter months I use the tanning machine in the club for four-minute stints.
And I am cautioned of the dangers of tanning.
Be aware of the damage that the sun or tanning machines may do before deciding to engage or not.

______________________________________
Short Takes: City Life
The Old North Church

_________________________________________
Answer to Question:
What is gospel music?

Gospel music is a genre of Christian music.
The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context.
Gospel music is composed and performed for many purposes, including aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, and as an entertainment product for the marketplace.

Gospel music usually has dominant vocals (often with strong use of harmony) with Christian lyrics. Gospel music can be traced to the early 17th century, with roots in the black oral tradition.
Hymns and sacred songs were often repeated in a call and response fashion.
Most of the churches relied on hand clapping and foot stomping as rhythmic accompaniment.
Most of the singing was done a cappella.

The first published use of the term "gospel song" probably appeared in 1874. The original gospel songs were written and composed by authors such as George F. Root, Philip Bliss, Charles H. Gabriel, William Howard Doane, and Fanny Crosby.
Gospel music publishing houses emerged.
The advent of radio in the 1920s greatly increased the audience for gospel music.
Following World War II, gospel music moved into major auditoriums, and gospel music concerts became quite elaborate.

Gospel blues is a blues-based form of gospel music (a combination of blues guitar and evangelistic lyrics).

Southern gospel used all male, tenor-lead-baritone-bass quartet make-up.
Progressive Southern gospel is an American music genre that has grown out of Southern gospel over the past couple of decades.

Christian country music, sometimes referred to as country gospel music, is a subgenre of gospel music with a country flair. It peaked in popularity in the mid-1990s.

Bluegrass gospel music is rooted in American mountain music.

Celtic gospel music infuses gospel music with a Celtic flair, and is quite popular in countries such as Ireland.

British black gospel refers to Gospel music of the African diaspora, which has been produced in the UK.

Some proponents of "standard" hymns generally dislike gospel music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Today, with historical distance, there is a greater acceptance of such gospel songs into official denominational hymnals.

__________________________________________
Photo Below:
Ralph Edmund Stanley (February 25, 1927 – June 23, 2016), also known as Dr. Ralph Stanley, was an American bluegrass artist, known for his distinctive singing and banjo playing.
Stanley began playing music in 1946, originally with his older brother Carter Stanley as part of The Stanley Brothers, and most often as the leader of his band, The Clinch Mountain Boys.

He was part of the first generation of bluegrass musicians and was inducted into both the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor and the Grand Ole Opry.

Stanley was born, grew up, and lived in rural Southwest Virginia—"in a little town called McClure at a place called Big Spraddle, just up the holler" from where he moved in 1936 and lived ever since in Dickenson County.

Stanley's work was featured in the very popular 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, in which he sings the Appalachian dirge "O Death." The soundtrack's producer was T-Bone Burnett. Stanley said the following about working with Burnett:

T-Bone Burnett had several auditions for that song. He wanted it in the Dock Boggs style.
So I got my banjo and learned it the way he did it.
You see, I had recorded "O Death" three times, done it with Carter.
So I went down with my banjo to Nashville and I said, "T-Bone, let me sing it the way I want to sing it," and I laid my banjo down and sung it a cappella.
After two or three verses, he stopped me and said, "That's it."

With that song, Stanley won a 2002 Grammy Award in the category of Best Male Country Vocal Performance. "That put the icing on the cake for me," he said. "It put me in a different category."

 __________________________________Good morning on this Saturday, December 15, Christmas now only 11 days away.
Today we talked about the art of conversation, gospel music, Ralph Stanley, the doyen of blue-grass. We heard from Tommie Toner, and passed along a lovely shot of the Old North Church and a caution to be aware of the dangers of tanning.


Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?

See you soon.

Love

Dom