A Welcome Frenzy

Thankful for busy times as the holidays near, but that distracts from writing

A short explanation, flashback, and additional reading.

It’s been almost a month since I last posted in this space, the result of several frenetic yet welcome weeks of work and family-related activities that left me without the mental capacity — more on that in a future essay — to write something worthy of publishing here.

The welcome part — spending time watching our oldest son run the Marine Corps Marathon, helping our youngest daughter move in with her partner this past weekend in New York City, having a number of creative opportunities behind the camera — collided with a sudden burst of freelance business that required long hours spent in front of a laptop and desktop.

Since October 10, I’ve photographed three conferences, a gala, a dance company, four school performances (two musicals, a one-act play, and a cabaret). I also shot/processed more than 400 studio images of “Nutcracker” dancers and finished writing two magazine features and a column. A busy but productive six weeks, I dare say.

A decade plus into doing this, I recognize the freelancer’s life is a combination of feast and famine, with occasional forays into utter desperation (“What do you mean I have nothing on the calendar for the next four weeks?”) and gluttony (“I can make a third of one year’s take home in a single month … as long as I can survive”). Like anyone in this line of work, I’ve learned to understand, expect, and even appreciate the ebbs and flows.

As we take time to give thanks, I also want you to know how much I appreciate you reading and following my work in this space. It means more than you know.

Two You May Have Missed

Every year at this time, I’m reminded of two memorable family events that occurred 46 years and one day apart. I was present at one and hadn’t been born when the second took place but was surrounded by the memories of it.

Fourteen years ago tonight, our son Ben made his Broadway debut as Little Boy in the Tony-nominated revival of “Ragtime.”

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Sixty years ago tomorrow, my father saw John F. Kennedy’s motorcade pass just a few minutes before the president was assassinated.

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If you haven’t read the essays, click on the links.

Additional Reading

I also wanted to call your attention to two K-12 education features I’ve written that also feature my photography. Published in consecutive issues of American School Board Journal, I think both are worth your time.

The first is Healing Beyond the Classroom, a story that focuses on Delaware’s Colonial School District just south of Wilmington. The district has a full-service wellness center and clinic in a high-poverty, majority-minority elementary school. The clinic is credited with helping to turn around the school thanks to fewer discipline and truancy referrals.

From the story: As schools nationwide grapple with student health challenges that were exposed and heightened during the pandemic, districts are looking at ways to provide system-wide services that go beyond what is taking place in the classroom. But there are obstacles — increased staffing shortages, ever-present financial challenges, and in some locales, political and cultural ones — that school leaders also must confront as they take on this task.

The second is Saginaw United, which looks at the once prosperous Michigan industrial hub that has dealt with plunging enrollment and staggering community violence. According to a 2021 FBI crime statistics report, one in 38 Saginaw residents has a chance of being a victim of a violent crime, a number higher than Detroit — 90 minutes to the south — and other large urban communities.

From the story: Community violence is a societal concern with no easy fix, but district leaders point to signs of hope after three decades of dramatic decline in a town divided racially and economically by a river, an interstate, and a struggling industry that largely abandoned it. Enrollment, which plunged from 25,000 students to 5,100 over three decades, has finally stabilized and grown by more than 300 post-COVID. A $99.5 million bond referendum passed in 2020 will merge the district’s two traditional high schools — Saginaw and Arthur Hill — into the new Saginaw United High School starting next year.

I hope you’ll give both stories — as well as the two essays — a read during the long holiday break. I also hope you have safe travels and get to spend some valuable time with family during the holiday season. Again, I’m grateful to all of you for reading, following, and commenting in this space.