Usdan Blog
Musings | Jan 22, 2021
I’m absolutely serious. We really, really need to make a play date. After the year we’ve all been through, I believe we more than owe it to ourselves. Aristotle claimed that play was a bodily necessity and said that just as the tired body requires rest, so too the stressed individual requires play. Today, stress might just be our society’s greatest commodity.
Musings | Jan 15, 2021
What a wildly restorative week this one became for me, due to two virtual events focused on youth creativity. In case you missed them, I'll catch you up.
Musings | Jan 8, 2021
Typically, I neither read my horoscope nor follow astrology, but the current planetary alignment has contextualized 2021 for me as an exciting year for a creative community like ours. As the lyrics in the musical “Hair” expresses: “This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.” We are in the final phases of the transition from the Age of Pisces to that of Aquarius.
Inspiring U | Dec 24, 2020
Inspiring U is a growing collection of creative content to help our community stay creatively engaged.
Musings | Dec 18, 2020
When I read this week’s edition of Bill McKibben’s New Yorker newsletter “The Climate Crisis,” my heart hurt. McKibben explained that the weight of human-made stuff on the planet now weighs more than all the living things.
Musings | Dec 11, 2020
“We Are” reminds me of the 2019 NYC Climate March, where I saw many Usdan families and a spoken word performance by a youth climate activist who I admire called Xiuhtezcatl Martinez. Martinez’s message to the youth at the march was: they are the chosen ones. As I listened to “We Are” last night, I understood that something happened to us this year and now we are all the chosen ones.