Saturday night brought us our Symphony Orchestra concert with harmonica virtuoso, Robert Bonfiglio. He not only performed a harmonica concerto; he delighted us with five or six encores. (I lost track after the fourth.) Excuse my ignorance; I had no idea harmonica virtuosos even existednor did I have any clue that concertos were written for this lovely little instrument. (The harmonica is an instrument?!?) The guy was incredible. Ive never seennor heardanything like it. Pleasecheck out www.robertbonfiglio.com to become enlightened yourself.

I got home around midnight last night, only to wake up and head back to the auditorium this morning to rehearse with one of our local dance troupes, our full symphony orchestra, narrator, lighting crew, and director for our annual Family Concert, the working committee for which I chaired. We interpreted the award-winning 1963 childrens classic Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak, by setting it to classical music and to classical ballet. Starting with The Creaky Door Overture, a little-known work by Kozinski, to an excerpt from Rimsky-Korsakovs Scheherazade, to Mussorgskys Night on Bald Mountain, the dancers performed to Stravinskys Firebird Suite, one of my personal favorites (with a climax that leaves me choked up each and every time I listen to it.) Actor Keir Dullea, best known for his performance in 2001: A Space Odyssey, narrated the prose as set forth in the book by Mr. Sendak.

This is not meant in any way to showcase our local, fully professional symphony orchestra, nor the dance company which performed so brilliantly today. Rather, it is used to illustrate a lesson that hit me like a ton of bricks this weekend. I had learned this lessonalbeit less intenselyyears ago when my daughter performed in ballets with her troupe. But too many years had passed and the lesson had been forgotten. I learned this lesson more palpably today by witnessing it firsthand. I observed the level of commitment requiredand cheerfully givenby many different people of many, varied talentsin order to achieve a highly desired result for a common cause, for the welfare of many.

The conductor needed prepared musicians; the musicians needed the conductor. The choreographer needed attentive, energetic dancersand they needed her direction. The set designer needed the choreographers vision, and we all needed his set! The make-up artist needed the dancers who needed the make-up artist. The stage crew needed the lighting contractor, who relied on the stage crew, choreographer, director, and conductor for direction. We all needed concert-goersand they needed this concert. This interdependence, lovingly given and enthusiastically accepted, mingled with emotionally charged music to produce a concert of significant aesthetic fuel. It will doubtless keep my tank filled for weeks.

So it is with all relationships. Husband needs wife and wife needs husband. Children need parents and parents need children. And political leaders need the electorate as the electorate needs leadership.

This is not an earth-shattering concept. But keep in mind, as you go through these next fifteen days before our Presidential election, of the interdependence of our citizens. Of how your vote will impact your neighbor, your brother, your employer, and your kids. Study the interdependence of the issues, how they fall like dominoes once stacked upon each other. And how we are, each and every one of us, in this life struggle together, like tiny separate dotsjust waiting to be connected.

Carolina Fernandez

Carolina Fernandez earned an M.B.A. before working at IBM and as a stockbroker at Merrill Lynch. She left the corporate world to work as a full-time wife, mother, and homemaker.

Coming home to longer hours, harder work, and more demanding relationships left her feeling totally overwhelmed. Granted, she traded one investment field for another which has yielded immeasurable returns heretofore unimagined. Nonetheless, her frustration at her lack of ability in tackling all of motherhood?s inherently difficult challenges pushed her into a nearly twenty year labor of love. Her research in child development, child psychology, social psychology, nutrition, and exercise physiology, along with indispensable insights and experiences gained along the way, finally evolved into ROCKET MOM!

She re-invented herself in the process. She has dabbled in the domestic, performing, and visual arts, undertaking projects ranging from painting in oils to hooking rugs to singing onstage in Carnegie Hall. She has developed strong convictions about the role of the arts in child development; these convictions have shaped the specific strategies played out in the book.

She has a passion for inspiring creativity in people of all ages, from pre-schoolers to rocket grandmoms! Indeed, she receives particular joy in helping moms on the front line as they engage in what is arguably the most creative challenge ever invented: motherhood. To this end, she writes and speaks extensively, and is constantly developing teaching materials in her effort to share the crucial intervention of creative nurturing in developing children. She shares her message via radio and TV interviews; print media; and in speaking platforms via seminars and workshops, lectures and keynotes for pre-schools, women?s groups, retreats, civic organizations and adult education classes. Her soon-to-be-launched cable TV program, ROCKET MOM! will reach thousands of households in the Fairfield County area of Connecticut.

Her newly-formed Rocket Mom Society attempts to meet her mission head-on as she ?encourages, equips and empowers moms for excellence.?

She lives with her husband and their four children in Ridgefield, Connecticut.