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Lunch with Reba

Here's something cool about living in Nashville: Reba pops in and sings at your Saturday fundraising luncheon.

Before this ridiculous ice storm rolled into town, a long-lost college friend invited me to her inaugural Valentine's Day luncheon.

It was Cheryl Davis' first major event since joining the Nashville Rescue Mission, a non-profit doing a tremendous job helping and rehabilitating the homeless and others in need.


Sure enough, Reba McEntire marched out on stage, sang a few songs, and held the whole room in the palm of her hand--all to honor the tables full of female graduates of the Mission's Life Recovery program.

It was a most meaningful way to celebrate Valentine's Day and brought many of us to tears.

I especially enjoyed a conversation with one of the young women seated at my table.

She was a Vanderbilt graduate and a co-believer in the liberal arts education our university (and others like it) provides students.

We both shared appreciation of the extensive, core class requirements. Sure, they may have been a pain in the butt at the time, but exposure to such fascinating and brain-expanding subjects is what education should be all about in the first place.

The conversation reminded me of this one below, which my former Dallas colleague and I taped long before I ever considered returning to Nashville. (Gina Miller, how this makes me miss our Real Botox Diaries!)


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