I received an amazing and mysterious gift from Elise for Christmas, 2016.

In an envelope looking like it contained a CD—she often creates music for us—was in fact a CD case. I thought perhaps it might even have been the soundtrack to the musical “Hamilton,” to which she had introduced me that spring, and to which I had been immediately drawn. We had been talking about it together constantly. Her students all wanted to perform and were infatuated by the music. Our book club discussed the book, and I was amazed by how it was interpreted in the music. AND by the (largely unrecognized?) influence Hamilton had in the formation of our country.

I thought, “How thoughtful. She got the album for me.” But when I opened the envelope, it was not a CD.

It WAS in fact a CD case, but it was empty. Instead, there was a puzzle, which upon assembly instructed me to open envelope 2.

Therein were TWO TICKETS TO THE BROADWAY PERFORMANCE OF “HAMILTON”! Early in the summer she had scoured the Internet for tickets so we could see it together. What a gift! She was somehow able to keep the secret for over six months, admitting it was difficult to do so.

Thus amazed and gratified, we began to think through how we could make this happen. We planned to spend a week there. Judy would come as well so we could share the trip. We didn’t know until almost the last minute whether Matt could come.

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My thinking process gravitated to and was influenced by a class in propositional logic, which I took in ninth grade. The underlying assumption/proposition is that a thing cannot be both true and not true. For example, a thing cannot be both black AND not-black; white AND not-white.

That puts me to thinking whenever I hear statements which fly in the face of this fundamental concept. In my role as director of communications, I’m sensitive to being sure that the messages I manage are internally consistent; that they faithfully and accurately promote the “brand”; and that they logically make sense. Continue reading →