JFK Jr., George, & Me: A Memoir by Matt Berman

It is somewhat difficult to believe that John F. Kennedy, Jr. has been dead for fifteen years. Known as John-John, America’s son, the Sexiest Man Alive, the Prince of Camelot–he had almost as many nicknames as the late soul singer, James Brown–he was killed, along with his wife Carolyn Bessette and her sister, Lauren Bessette, in a plane crash on his way to his cousin Rory’s wedding In Hyannisport, the summer stomping ground of generations of Kennedys. The plan was to drop his sister-in-law off on Martha’s Vineyard, but something went horribly wrong. The crash occurred fewer than ten miles from the Gay Head beaches where his late mother had owned a summer estate. Kennedy was only thirty-eight years old.

“Je suis Charlie. Tout est pardonné.”

Muhammad in tears adorns the new cover of Charlie Hebdo: “I am Charlie. All is forgiven.” This is bigger than satire.

I take a deep breath, uncertain how to write about last week’s insane shooting spree in Paris. My daughter and her husband live there. “Things are normal,” she told me a few days afterward, “but there’s a presence — this thing that has happened. It’s in the air.”

A few days later I came upon this headline at the McClatchy Washington bureau website: “U.S. airstrike in Syria may have killed 50 civilians.”

The story reports: “The civilians were being held in a makeshift jail in the town of Al Bab, close to the Turkish border, when the aircraft struck on the evening of Dec. 28, the witnesses said. The building, called the Al Saraya, a government center, was leveled in the airstrike. It was days before civil defense workers could dig out the victims’ bodies.”

Gail Larned is a fiber artist, has been collaborating with Eric Marlow, jewelry designer, on artistic endeavors for more than three decades. Gail’s artist statement reads: It is my intention to create art that brings an element of natural beauty to the environment. The flower sculptures and dioramas that I make are monumental in scale and elicit a sense of child-like wonder in the viewer. This suspension of the familiar is beneficial in that it allows one to be transported to another reality – much like a feeling of Alice in Wonderland.

Traditionally flowers are used to commemorate major events in life. They represent renewal, celebration, remembrance and pure beauty.

The "Patterns of Life" is an imaginary landscapes seen from above. A bird’s eye view of the Earth, which embodies a pastoral peacefulness and contentment.

In today’s chaotic world I create art that is peaceful and soothing to the viewer, creating a visual oasis.