2025, One Month at a Time: February

February 1, 2025 found me taking this selfie with my friend Chris in front of his house in Melrose, Massachusetts. After being virtual friends for a few years, Chris and I had met the night before for the first time and gone to see Frank Black together. Chris and I would go on to write some cool stuff together as the year progressed.

After leaving Melrose, I headed to Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. Mt. Auburn is considered to be the first rural cemetery in the United States, with Laurel Hill, where I’m a tour guide, being considered the second. My intention was simply to stop by the office and extend unofficial greetings from Laurel Hill, but there was a. scheduled tour at 1:00 that afternoon, and I wound up taking it. I hope to get back and wander around a bit more someday.

I arrived home from my Boston trip around 10:00 p.m. on February 1, but Donna and I were up bright and early and taking a selfie at the Grover Clevland Service Area in New Jersey the very next morning, heading for adventure in the Bronx. Jane Austen adventure, that is.

Before the Jane Austen adventure in the Bronx, Donna and I spent a few hours at the Cloisters, the Met’s museum of medieval art in Northern Manhattan. It’s a beautiful place to spend some time, especially on a Sunday morning/early afternoon, which is when we were there.

I felt especially drawn to the many Madonna and Child sculptures at the Cloisters that Sunday. This one seemed to radiate a quiet joy to me.

Eventually, we made our way through the Bronx to Pelham Bay Park. We had wacky misadventures finding dinner but then got to the Bartow-Pell Mansion, where we joined Jane Austen’s Country Dance Workshop. Lady Catherine de Bourgh would have been quite put out by our attempt to dance like Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet, but we had fun. Donna says, “The steps were vexing.”

On February 8th, Donna, Chris and I went to the The Time is Now exhibit of works by Black artists at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The title comes from this James Baldwin quote: “There is never a time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment, the time is always now.” This was my favorite painting in the exhibit. It is by Henry Taylor and is titled, “Right hand, wing man, best friend, and all the above.”

We joined our friends Michael and Teri to go see Minas at the Sellersville Theater on February 19. The show was a great tribute to the sound of Sergio Mendes. Many great tunes, including “Mas Que Nada” and a few Bossa-based Beatles covers were played.

Here I am on February 23, just before I gave a Presidential Connections tour at Laurel Hill Cemetery. I am wearing my Martin Van Buren t-shirt at the gravesite of Henry Gilpin, who served as MVB’s attorney general. MVB skipped the inauguration of his successor William Henry Harrison, who gave a long speech in cold, rainy weather and died 31 days later. Van Buren was apparently at Gilpin’s Washington, D.C. home during Harrison’s inauguration.