A Lecture and a Concert: Cultural Enrichment for Maura

Jennifer and I believe that it is important to expose Maura to many different experiences and give her many opportunities to learn. The education she gets at school is vital and provides her with basic skills but the world is full of interesting things that she won’t be likely to learn at school. Maura is curious and smart. She takes an interest in most of the new things she is exposed to and her mother and I are comfortable in taking her to events that might not interest many nine-year-olds. This Saturday we took her to two of them.

The first event was a lecture at our local library. Authors Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald discussed their recent book Northern Hospitality: Cooking by the Book in New England. The book (and the lecture) discusses the history of cooking in New England through the cookbooks that were used here from the 17th Century to the early 20th Century. Maura likes history and I was fairly certain that she would be interested enough to pay attention to a talk about the history of food. If she was bored she could have gone into the children’s library which is just across the hall from the room the lecture was in. She stayed through the whole lecture and was well behaved so she must have found it interesting enough to hold her attention. I found the topic fascinating. We both enjoyed tasting the plum cake, baked according to a 1796 recipe, that we had a chance to sample at the end of the lecture. Some of other patrons were surprised that Maura would eat the plum cake but it was not a surprise to her mother and I. We have always encouraged her to try new foods and by now she does so as a matter of course. Very often enjoys them. We all liked the plum cake. It was rich and lightly sweet. If we had been at home I would have had a second piece.

In the evening we went to the Cantors’ Concert at Congregation Sha’aray Shalom. Cantor Weiss of Sha’aray Shalom was joined by six of his colleagues who serve other congregations to present a concert honoring the musicians who perform in services at Sha'aray Shalom. The performers came from as far away as California, though the majority were from the Boston Metropolitan Area, They sang a variety of music—a mixture Jewish religious music, pop songs and show tunes. There were several ensemble numbers and each cantor had at least one solo or duet. They all had wonderful voices and had chosen their pieces well. Maura was well behaved but it was a late night for her and by the end of the show she was falling asleep. We stayed at the reception afterwards for a while but it was clearly time for Maura to get to bed so we didn’t stay long. We might have left as soon as the show was over but Maura would have been disappointed.