Mary Jo Bellner Swartzberg Research published in Royal Society Open Science has revealed there is an unspoken expectation of co-operation in many societies around the world and so (the phrase) “thank you” is surplus to requirements. (U.K. News, May 2018) Further, researchers determined that in some of the languages they observed there was no phrase…
Tag: This I have learned
Features, September 2020
This I Have Learned…
Mary Jo Bellner Swartzberg It was time to get my hair—ahem—colored again. So, I visited a nearby salon. When I walked into the cramped salon the owner was busily tending to a customer. He casually turned to me, sized me up and down, and said: “Do I know you?” I said that he had given…
Features, August 2020
This I Have Learned . . .
Mary Jo Bellner Swartzberg Violet In 1985, a little-known film was released by the name of The Trip to Bountiful, starring Geraldine Page and John Heard. It is a fictional story of an elderly woman who lived for 15 years with her son and his crabby wife in a cramped apartment where the bickering is plentiful…
Sports, July 2020
This I Have Learned
Features, June 2020
This I Have Learned – Pondering
Mary Jo Bellner Swartzberg I sometimes think about: My grandparents. My maternal grandparents perished in 1919, from the flu pandemic. My paternal grandmother died in 1937, but my paternal grandfather lived until 1966. Not having the connection to one’s grandparents is tragic. Luckily, I wrote a letter to my paternal grandfather from college and, my…
Features, May 2020
This I Have Learned…A Movie for All Time
Mary Jo Bellner Swartzberg With the extra time I have on my hands these days, I decided to watch one of my favorite movies, South Pacific, on Turner Classic Movies. Leave it to Rodgers and Hammerstein to write the lyrics for its third and uber-successful panoramic movie. The other two, Oklahoma! (1955) and Carousel (1956), were equally as…
Features, April 2020
This I Have Learned…Coming to Terms with Tragedy
Mary Jo Bellner Swartzberg It is rather amazing the breadth and scope of the experiences people have had who come to live in SaddleBrooke. A while ago, I met Linda Dighton through the Sonoran Singers, a group to which we both belong. Linda and her husband, Randall, moved to SaddleBrooke from Paradise, CA, three months…
Features, March 2020
This I Have Learned: Learning About a Disease
Mary Jo Bellner Swartzberg We are now at the end of the first quarter of 2020 – already? Looking back at 2019, the year seems so far away! For me, there were many take-aways from last year; the most important of them was getting a glimpse into what it would be like to have Alzheimer’s…
Features, January 2020
This I Have Learned: A Time for a Change!
Mary Jo Bellner Swartzberg It’s a new year, new decade, and a new you! Are you thinking about turning a new leaf or changing your habits? Many people take the beginning of a new year to make changes in their lifestyle. However, not everyone waits until January to do so. Billie Jo (B.J.) Murray had…
Features, December 2019
This I Have Learned…The holidays under wraps
Mary Jo Bellner Swartzberg The holidays – under wraps! December…perhaps the most hectic month of the year. It’s not surprising that people experience the most stress during the month. Still – even though we see it coming – we buy into the holiday rush of meeting deadlines. Conversely, and not in a bad way, the…