ESSAY: A Christmas Meditation

ESSAY: A Christmas Meditation

  By Tom Robotham So this is Christmas, and what have you done? – John Lennon When I was a kid, the Christmas season was the most exciting time of the year. Ushering it in, shortly after Thanksgiving, was the arrival of the Sears Christmas catalogue—or “Wish...
ESSAY: A Christmas Meditation

OPINION: Rushing to Judgment

      By Tom Robotham As the holidays approach, I find myself thinking about my all-time favorite movie for the season—Holiday Inn (1942), starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, which I’ve loved for nearly 50 years. The movie’s biggest claim to fame is that it...
The Beauty of Baseball

The Beauty of Baseball

(THREE GENERATIONS OF FANS: My father’s boyhood baseball glove from the 1930s, holding a ball signed by my son’s Little League team, which I coached. Photo by Tom Robotham) By Tom Robotham  The one constant through all the years has been baseball. ~...
ESSAY: A Christmas Meditation

Legacies of 9/11

  By Tom Robotham  On the evening of September 10, 2001, I was watching Band of Brothers with my then-8-year-old son. At one point, he asked me if I’d ever been to war. “No,” I told him. “I was lucky. I missed the Vietnam-War draft by just a couple of years. I...
ESSAY: Musical Riches Await

ESSAY: Musical Riches Await

(Virginia Symphony Orchestra’s new music director Eric Jacobsen) By Tom Robotham  Recently, for another publication, I wrote a piece about the dawn of a new era for the now 100-year-old Virginia Symphony. As of July, the orchestra has a new music...
ESSAY: Remembrance and Renewal 

ESSAY: Remembrance and Renewal 

  Words & Photo by Tom Robotham Late last month, I spent a week in New York City. It was my first visit to my hometown since 2018, and in the days leading up to the trip, I had a lot of mixed emotions. On the plus side, I was looking forward to spending time...