“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…
I vividly recall the summer that I nagged my mother endlessly to let me have a lemonade stand. I know I was under 8 years old, but I don’t recall exactly how old. We lived in a safe neighborhood where people looked out for each other and anyone’s children. Because everyone was poor or working…
A couple of weeks ago I titled a blog post Sorry, Not Sorry and the statistics for readership shot up. I am not sure it was the title that caused the spike or my fetching photographs or pithy comments, but I will hazard a guess that at least a few readers were snagged by the…
…many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. Free at last! Free at last! — Martin Luther King, Jr., August 1963 For the…
Recently I approached a checkout lane in a local grocery store when I overheard the clerk and a sacker having this exchange: “You’re still making $9.25? You’re kidding! Why would I stay here as long as you have and hope for checker job, when that’s all you make?” These two guys, likely about 21 (clerk)…
When I was a boy learning about life and community in a poor area of Milwaukee, I saw and experienced eating dirt. Although I don’t recall if there were specific ages when we were inducted into the practice or were no longer eligible for it, I do remember what it looked like. The boy expected…
Memory, like perception, is not passive retrieval but an active and creative process that involves the imagination. We are all always reinventing our pasts, but we are not doing it on purpose. Delusion, however great, is not the same as mendacity. We know when we are lying . Lying is a form of double consciousness.…
I’d love to know how Dad saw me when I was 6. I’d love to know a hundred things. When a parent dies, a filing cabinet full of all the fascinating stuff also ceases to exist. I never imagined how hungry I’d be one day to look inside it. ― David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks This past…
Labor is blossoming or dancing where The body is not bruised to pleasure soul, Nor beauty born out of its own despair, Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil. O chestnut-tree, great-rooted blossomer, Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole? O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the…
These past two weeks I have been posting on reconciliation and greed. As I re-read them, I am struck by several editorial items, but mainly these: * My writing style gets too close to sermonizing at times. * There are several points where I cannot find myself in what I have written. * I am…
Creating Community for Everyone 