Boston Book Festival 2012

                             "There is no friend as loyal as a book."  Ernest Hemingway  Similary:
 "If you have a book, you always have a friend."  Miss Kurpeski, my Girls' Kindergarten teacher

Trinity Church from my office window!

            Stayed home last weekend, to give Kristi a break, and enjoy Hx3 alone for a bit!  A few years ago, I had another wonderful young Lady in my dental chair who was the Director of the Boston Book Festival.  (Aren’t I lucky to have so many interesting Patients?  And, to have made such good friends with many of them as well!  A friend likes to remind me that this is not normal..)

Copley Square and Boston Public Library

            Finally, last year, the timing was right, so I volunteered at it.  (My young Lady was no longer the Director, as she went to work with a family business, but as fate would have it, she was back in the office this week!)  I was fortunate enough to spend the afternoon in Trinity Church.  I had worked directly across the street looking at its beauty and Copley Square for 4 years, and I finally spent a whole afternoon there!  This year’s Festival was timed perfectly for me again, so I spent yet another afternoon there last Saturday!



Trinity Church reflected on the John Hancock Tower

            The Founder and Director, Deborah Z. Porter welcomed all to the Festival with these words: “Welcome to the Fourth Annual Boston Book Festival, a celebration of the power of words.  Once again, we have assembled a diverse group of authors and thought leaders-both established names and up-and-comers-to inspire, provoke, stimulate, and entertain festivalgoers                                                                             of all ages and interests…”

            I’m getting good at crowd control.  My loud mouth is definitely being put to good, positive use, finally.  There were two sessions that I worked at, and at both a nice Lady sat in the back pew, right next to where I was doing my work.  During my stint in the second session, when I had a second, I quietly asked her if she was sick of listening to me?  She responded by saying how impressed she was with my patience!  For those of you who know, and hopefully love me, that was quite a compliment!  You can learn and grow virtues!

            Both of the sessions were interesting.  From the Festival Program: THE BRAIN: Thinking About Thinking.  Eric Kandel applies his famous work on memory, for which he won a Nobel Prize in 2220, to esplore how the mind perceives art in The Age of Insight.  Ray Kurzwell, arguably one of the world’s most provocative futurists, looks at how our increasing ability to reverse-engineer the brain will lead to ever more intelligent machines in How to Creat a Mind.  Each author will give a mind-blowing presentation, followed by Q & A.  Hosted by Sacha Pfeiffer, WBUR’s host of All Things Considered.  Sponsored by Good Measures.

Trinity Church Sanctuary

            “           Political Culture.  An election year seems like the perfect opportunity to assess the state of political culture in our country, and let’s begin by saying the news is not great.  Jon in the discussion with some veteran observers, including political philosopher and author of What Money Can’t Buy, Michael Sandel; Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy, author of The Persistence of the Color Line; Harvard law professor and activist Lawrence Lessing, author of Republic Lost; historian and journalist Nancy Cohen, author of Delirium The Politics of Sex in America; and founder of Common Good, Philip K. Howard, author of The Death of Common Sense.  Moderated by Tom Ashbrook, host of WBUR’s On Point.”

 

Copley Square and Copley Plaza Hotel

             Most of the offerings at the Boston Book Festival are free.  It is held at venues surrounding Copley Square with entertainment and stalls set up in the Square itself.  It happens in October.  Watch for it next year.  I highly recommend it!