This past Friday during lunch in Princeton, my friend architect extraordinaire Josh Zinder asked each attendee to share a story.   Since the next Friday (September 23) marks a special anniversary of sorts, I shared how I met Fred C. Klein or perhaps how Fred met me.  

What's left after a bruising battle, a war, a conflict, an argument? Raw feelings, resolution, terror....? Can we as a country feel unified? Did we ever?   We are fed a stream of news that is divisive and lopsided, you can pick the side. Social media feeds us what we want to hear...not what we should hear. Yes...it's true. Social media keeps track of what we click on and provides us with more content related to that topic. It's in their algorythms.  

Rashomon was an iconic 1950 Japanese movie wherein a number of eye witnesses to a horrendous event each had a different version as to what happened. The Rashomon effect is contradictory interpretations of the same event by different people.  It is said that the effect is not only based on differences in perspective, but occurs where such differences arise in combination with the absence of evidence to elevate or disqualify any version of the truth, plus social pressure for closure on the question.

Recently, I was again reminded of the vagaries of life. Those chance occurrences that could make all the difference.We were driving to Washington, D.C. and were about 30 minutes away on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway when traffic suddenly came to a complete stop. Within minutes, at least 10 emergency vehicles passed us. The traffic app told us that there was a major accident less that a tenth of a mile ahead of us. It had happened moments before.

...especially if you love women. Who knew that September 14 was such a powerful day for human rights and creativity? In 1879, Margaret Sanger was born, founder of Planned Parenthood and one of the very first outspoken advocates of choice.

  I need a little help from my Gotham friends. You all “get it” about the importance of networking. That’s why you are part of our Gotham family.    

What sort of eater are you? I think my husband would say I am a quirky  eater. For instance, I love raw carrots and eat them by the handful all day long. But I will never go near a cooked carrot, no matter how lightly cooked it may be.    

Today is a somber day, a day of reflection.  15 years ago was a frozen moment in time like a snapshot, everyone one of us knows where we were, and what we were doing as the day’s events unfolded.   Most of us knew people who lost their lives that day, or others by a quirk of fate that did not.  We all lost something that day, some more than others.