Dean’s Column
The Dean of the North Shore Chapter of AGO writes a monthly column for our newsletter, Overtones. Those messages will appear here, along with any other posts or articles from the Dean between editions.
Dean’s Column | August 2022
Midsommer greetings to all! I trust that everyone has been enjoying their time off from the weekly church responsibilities of the necessary choir rehearsals and significant time spent with the weekly practice on the organ. I also hope that many of you were able to...
Dean’s Column | June 2022
Dear Friends A passenger with “no idea” how to fly, safely landed a single-engine aircraft after its pilot lost consciousness. An air traffic controller (who also happens to be a certified flight instructor) answered the passenger’s distress call and guided his new...
Dean’s Column | May 2022
Dear Friends, Colin Powell stated that, “There are no secrets to success. It’s the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.” The hard work and preparation are a given, but his statement begs an earlier question: What is success? What are we...
Dean’s Column | April 2022
Dear Friends, In Harvard Business School professor Arthur Brooks’ new book, From Strength to Strength, he suggests that we need three things to be happy: faith, friends and meaningful work. In light of that, I couldn’t help notice what Ukraine’s President Zelensky...
Dean’s Column | March 2022
Dear Friends, In my lifetime, I’ve been told to worry about: overpopulation, nuclear war, acid rain, holes in the ozone, an impending food shortage, an impending water shortage, an upcoming ice age, nuclear waste, soil erosion, the death of bumblebees, the collapse of...
Dean’s Column | January 2022
Dear Friends, I hope you are surviving the normal challenges of this season, combined with the left turns of Omicron. I also hope that you are filled with hope. I highlight “hope” because I suspect that more than a few of you are fighting the fatigue of this pandemic,...
Dean’s Column | December 2021
Dear Friends, My daughter face timed me last week and the first thing I noticed was the Christmas tree. Just so you don’t feel behind (or offended that she broke an unwritten rule of ‘no Christmas before Thanksgiving’), all the decorations were not complete. She...
Dean’s Column | November 2021
Dear Friends, I know it is a bit early to think about Thanksgiving, but it is November now, and a great time to not only consider travel plans and culinary recipes, but to take a moment to initiate the ritual of giving thanks. Long before scientists devised...
Dean’s Column | October 2021
Dear Friends, In this month’s Overtones, you will find pictures throughout the articles. To me, this speaks to a narrative of one of our chapter’s high values - intentional relationships. Though the pandemic has naturally changed some of the ways we have...
Dean’s Column | July 2021
Dear Friends, Perhaps as I did, you expected warm and sunny days ushering in the month of July. Instead, it wasn’t just wind blowing through Chicago recently, but flash floods joined the tornado warnings and severe thunderstorms. Unless you were cleaning...