In 2000, I argued that condensing our understanding of voting patterns into two teams, red or blue, was a big mistake. After watching election results that year, I worried aloud that reductionist approaches would only further the political schism in the U.S. Our electoral decisions, after all, are not football scores. I recall asking you…
I have known for some time now that I am waiting for an apology. Initially, I felt I was being petty – unreasonable, perhaps. But lately I recognize that just because my expectation will not be met, it is not necessarily unreasonable. Perhaps the offender(s) just need some assistance. So, in the spirit of healing,…
I have been thinking about this date almost daily for months. Last July I wrote, When hundreds of Brown and Black LGBT people went to a nightclub in Orlando last month to celebrate Pride, graduations, new jobs, new loves, recent successes, the weekend, and old times, they had already been taking the pulse of many other…
I am too intelligent, too demanding, and too resourceful for anyone to be able to take charge of me entirely. – Simone de Beauvoir Three children. Two miscarriages, at least. A shaky marriage. A will born for survival in an adolescent girl, now a woman who would not be controlled. She needed to work to…
My students are familiar with my comments and jokes about my not being easy. I expect, for example, that they challenge themselves to identify as students in contrast to merely being “in school” (identity vs location). I expect them to interact with the 40 other people in the room. Shy? Me, too! Tough. Get to…
Lub, Dub. Nearly 50 years ago I went to a party wearing flip flops, fishnet stockings, and grapes. Period. Lub. Because it was very cold the night of that New Years Eve costume party, my thin trench coat did little to keep me warm as I knelt in the back of a car on the…
By age 10 I had become pretty adept at taking the pulse of a room. I knew when my dad had too much to drink, when a holiday was in danger of being cancelled, when the cake would go uneaten, when my mom was fed-up and overwhelmed. Most of the time I tested a space…
Advanced warning: I am not a religious person, but I have history. Lots of it. My family was Catholic during my childhood and at least for a generation before that, but has Jewish roots on one side and quite possibly on both. As a young boy I found great solace in church and its beautiful…
I think of disappointment as the feeling I get when I get what I want — sort of. The image for me that looms large is being in eighth grade and winning a raffle first prize. The second prize was a stereo record player. The third and fourth prizes were something like tools or school…
“Does one actually need to convert to secular Judaism?” That, from my friend Bonnie after I asked her if I should convert, having discovered I am part Jewish, but was raised Catholic. The funny part is that her question was sincere. She suggested that we make a series of dinner reservations instead. Still, at the…
Creating Community for Everyone 