Exit the bubble
So I took this writing workshop early in January with David Hochman, writer extraordinaire, and fellow Vassar alum. And it was good. Inspiring. Delicious, because his wife Ruth Kennison, a real live pastry chef and chocolatier, made us incredible lunches and snacks. I left with some new writer friends and concrete ideas about how to […]
Hybrid holidays
If you read my blog regularly, you know that this year, and every year at the holidays, I’m rather morose, joyless, and ungrateful. I feel guilty about it, which only makes things worse. Now that the holidays are over, I think I can diagnose some of what ails me. This is hard to write, but […]
Facebooking your freak out
Facebook is amazing. And awful. We all know that. I’ve been on Facebook for about four years, and I credit being connected to various people from all times in my life to feeling better about sad times, like when I announce that I’m sad as I observe the death anniversary of my father or […]
The Designated Celebrant: Confessions of a Holiday Hater
December 18, 2012: It’s a week before Christmas. Since we’re a mixed religion family and Hanukkah has passed, my kids have opened most of their holiday booty from my husband and me and the rest of the family. I tried to remain neutral about the holidays, waiting with no fixed expectations for joy, peace, wonder, […]
After the Newtown, Connecticut, Shooting
After Several Days of Rain Crisp December, just before noon Billowy white clouds defy gravity As wet red maple leaves whip windows and each other. A man with little red riding hood on his back Smiles at me, his George Clooney face mouths a small ‘thank you’ As I stop the car so he can […]
(Poverty) is like a box of chocolates
When I was in the grocery store last week, I saw these fancy chocolates. They are delicious, as I know from personal experience. But I could not bring myself to buy any, even “just for guests” or “for the kids,” two of my usual excuses for buying extraneous treats. The taste of these candies is […]
Unorthodox review. Or, thank g-d for Deborah Feldman’s voice.
Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots by Deborah Feldman My rating: 5 of 5 stars I wish I could give this book more stars. It’s a very unusual memoir, compelling not just because of the subject matter — the lifelong process of losing faith in the closed religious community the author was raised […]
Finding Grateful
I feel a very unusual sensation — if it is not indigestion, I think it must be gratitude. -Benjamin Disraeli When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around. -Willie Nelson According to some of my Facebook friends, November is an unofficial month of gratitude, where each day a participating person is supposed […]
A brief history of racism
Last week, the Associated Press and other news outlets reported that racial attitudes have gotten worse, not better, since the United States elected its first African American president four years ago in 2008. Those who admitted to having anti-African American feelings rose from 48% in 2008 to 51% in 2012. If the researchers included implicit […]
Book learning for girls
Last week a 14-year-old Pakistani girl named Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by the Taliban. Her crimes, labeled “activism” by the monsters who tried to kill her and her female classmates, appears to be attending school and encouraging other girls to become educated. This week, in my home state of Wisconsin, a man […]
