After Thirty, A Body Has

My Parents Used To Park Us Kids At The Public Library In Downtown Honolulu Every Saturday. They'd Leave Us There At 8 A.m. And Pick Us Up At 4 P.m. - So Between Those Hours, You'd Better Find Something To Do! I Sat Upstairs In The Picture Room And Went Through Opera, Ballet, And Theater Books. I Loved The Photographs Of People Wearing Elaborate Makeup And Costumes - They Really Pulled At Me Inside. I Was In That Library Every Week For Years, Until I Was About 13. I Had A Rich Interior Life, Because I Didn't Have Much Of A Social Life.

Cats Always Seem So Very Wise, When Staring With Their Half-closed Eyes. Can They Be Thinking, I'll Be Nice, And Maybe She Will Feed Me Twice?

While I Was Growing Up, I Believed I Could Do Anything I Could Think Of. So The Challenge Was Always To Keep Thinking - To Get To Where I Wanted To Be And Then To Think Of Somewhere Else To Go.

You Can't Just Have A Clean Public Space - You Also Have To Have People Willing To Use It, And Something That Will Draw Them In.

One Of My First Role Models Was Eugene Lang, A Wealthy Businessman Who Went Back To His Elementary School In East Harlem And Addressed The Sixth-grade Class. He Looked Out At That Sea Of Faces And Said, "if Any Of You Wants To Go To College, I Will Pay For It." When I Read That, I Burst Into Tears. It Was So Generous And So Basic. Not Fluffy. I Can't Understand Why We Scrimp On Education And Shortchange Our Kids. Why Would The Citizenry Do That To The People Who Are Going To Inherit Its Republic?