What constitutes a good life?
Thoughts on the good life on what would have been my father’s 100th birthday.
All posts tagged: Tom Brown
Gaps make life interesting
A recent photo session gave me the opportunity to accept that I’m not perfect. Who knew (he says TIC)?
The practice of breakfast
My father’s morning practice of centering, and then cheerfully making breakfast, was the example I needed all along.
Belief in a common purpose
The New Deal should serve as inspiration for our response to today’s crises.
The elegant swing of Teddy Wilson
For the final Saturday Soundtrack post of April, I’m going to recognize Jazz Appreciation Month by highlighting my father’s favorite jazz musician: the elegant pianist Teddy Wilson. Wilson was born in 1912 in Austin, Texas, but moved at age six with his parents to the famed Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. His father was the head of the English Department while his mother later became the school’s head librarian. Wilson began his musical instruction at Tuskegee, where he studied not only the piano, but also violin, oboe, and clarinet. Around 1930, when playing music in Toledo, Ohio, Wilson met the great Art Tatum and the two played together often during that period. Wilson eventually moved to New York City, with the encouragement of jazz supporter John Hammond, and went on to join Benny Goodman‘s band. It was with Goodman and drummer Gene Krupa that Wilson became the first African American to play in a racially mixed, high profile musical group in the United States. Wilson performed with Goodman, off and on, for many years, including for …
The More Things Change…1998 to 2017
My father loved to read Molly Ivins. Her brand of populist liberalism, her concern for the powerless, her razor-sharp wit were all right up his alley. As a New Deal Democrat, Daddy didn’t have much sympathy for corporate-backed, hypocritical, poll-watching politicians. So when I went to my father’s house earlier this year to help clear out his library, I brought home the four Ivins books he had at the time plus a biography of the Texas firebrand. Daddy had almost all of Ivins’ works, but some he had given away. (He once gave me a copy of one of her books that he said he had purchased at the remainder table at the local bookstore, only to come home and find out he already had two copies of the same book.) I was looking for a quick and lively read a few days ago after working through a couple of more difficult offerings, and pulled You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You off the bookshelf. This is Ivins’ 1998 take on the Clinton …
Top Posts of 2016 (Family and Friends Edition)
I’m lucky to have patient readers of More to Come… as the blog (like my mind) is often all over the place. In looking back over posts from the past year, I decided to highlight the top ten (in terms of views) in a “family and friends” edition, to be followed tomorrow by a “whatever else tickles my fancy” edition, where I’ll catch the posts that don’t directly relate to family members. Unfortunately, many of the top family posts this year related to death and loss. There were so many losses this year (both family and others who felt like family) that I added a Rest In Peace category to the blog. I’m grateful for the notes and comments these musings brought, but like so many readers I still miss the people who are no longer with us. I’ll highlight the top ten family and friends posts in the order in which they showed up on More to Come… Andrew was asked to join Lady Gaga and 50 other survivors of sexual assault on the …
Our year in photos – 2016
2016 was our year for time in Italy and my last visit with Daddy.
Six (or Less) Degrees of Separation
My father stayed in touch with people all over the world. But I was still surprised earlier this week when the Senior Minister of First Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia – where I was speaking – quickly made the association between me and my hyper-connected father. Historic Savannah Foundation invited me to be the guest speaker at their annual meeting, which was being held in the historic sanctuary of First Baptist Church. In a bit of chit-chat before the meeting began with their senior minister, Dr. John Finley, I mentioned that I grew up attending First Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. That’s when Dr. Finley looked at me and asked, “Are you Tom’s son?” I must have looked pretty dumb-founded, because he quickly added, “My first job out of college at Vanderbilt was as a youth minister in First Baptist in Murfreesboro.” Dr. Finley was there in the mid-1970s for three months, and became friends with my mom and dad, as well as the staff and others. Daddy kept in touch and even visited Savannah …
Going out in a blaze of glory
Last evening’s Commemoration of All Faithful Departed service at our church was beautiful and personally meaningful. I had it marked on my calendar for some time, as I wanted to attend to remember my father, who passed away earlier this year. The choir’s music was beautiful, with Mozart’s Requiem interspersed between the readings. The first of those readings is from the Book of Wisdom and begins, “The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment shall ever touch them.” We put the names of loved ones departed into a basket, and during the prayers of the people each name was read while members of the congregation could come forward and light a candle. (As an aside, I loved hearing baseball legend Monte Irvin remembered among the departed.) Lovely. Thoughtful. Deeply moving. And when I saw that The Rev. Emily Griffin was the evening’s preacher, I knew all three of those feelings would continue. We have three very insightful and thoughtful priests who enlighten us each in their own way with …
MORE TO COME... 