When my late husband died and his body was removed from the house, I was suddenly very much alone. Dear friends were at hand, but there was no one to go to bed with and sob, no one to wake up with and sob. So when I awoke on December 25, 2015 a widower, I…
A big part of our common activity in local, regional, ethnic, racial, national, and international community has become watching. We watch television, video, movies, concerts, plays, fights, presentations. We watch celebrities. We watch a 90-year old Queen and a 57-year old Prince. We watch Michael, Whitney, Diana, David, Janice, and…
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…
During an interview on Fresh Air, Jacob Bernstein, the son of Nora Ephron, said when asked about his mother’s sharp criticism, “she had a razor in her mouth.” He was referring to her toughness as an editor, seemingly unafraid to urge writers – even her son – to cut, cut, cut. In the context of…
Yesterday I thrice commented on things I learned in two college courses in linguistics before I blurted to my friend and colleague Mischelle, “They may have been the most useful classes I ever took.” Together with Latin and English, these linguistics courses taught me ways of understanding the world through the use of language. My…
I lament the loss of civil discourse, though I fear at times I am involved in its painful demise. As I write this week about politics, I am struck by my longing for the language of protests of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Hell, I am hungry for something that approaches a good argument. To…
One of the by-products of having been raised poor and later working class is my ongoing challenge stating what is politic. I am often in the position of saying what is deemed unwise, not judicious, or imprudent. For many more years than I care to estimate, I have been cautioned, marginalized, and – at times…
This week I have been writing about wanting, the stuff of desire, demand, and longing. As I have been thinking about what I want, about what we want, I have observed that many of us show our disappointment when we get what we get instead of what we want. We also show our discouragement about…
An old friend of mine and I used to joke about levels of discouragement like they were circles in Dante’s Inferno. The absolute lowest level, we decided, was resignation, not despair. With despair, one still looks back at what is lost to us. Resignation even quits looking back. We will never have what we want,…
“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 