50 Years after Bloody Sunday – Where is Elderhood?

  ANSWER:  It’s in every one of us. Really. Even in the headliners criticized by the vast and varied media.  Overt or latent, Elderhood ™ is in you and it’s in me.  It’s in Obama.  It’s in Boehner.  It’s in Netanyahu. And, most surely, Elderhood ™ is in John Lewis and each of the original Selma foot soldiers gathered today to remember Bloody Sunday – the horror they survived 50 years ago… Read More

Gaza and the Courage to be Kind

There is so much that is difficult about circumstances in Gaza. Two Julys ago, my niece Mary spent time volunteering in Palestine, building homes there, her colleagues of all nationalities, and the promised residents all knew would be destroyed – and they were (MARY SAYS, MITT SAYS. Blog July 29, 2012). Mary met and befriended Palestinians and Israelis. She has made more friends in subsequent visits and remains dearly connected with many… Read More

Neighbors at War and the Possibility of Peace

Today.  Right now.  Palestinian people and all people in and around the area of Israel known as Gaza — the Syrian people, Afghan people and people in too many other places on the planet to list here are in immediate danger.  Some are dying.  People = children, youth, and adults including mothers, fathers, grandparents, great grandparents.  These people have pets, they live in places where other animals live, they drink water and… Read More

XXX Olympiad — Blog readership plummets

Not that the number was that sky-high to begin with – although of late there have been readers from India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Israel and Brazil – even one reader from Sierra Leon.  I don’t know if all of the countries represented by readers on this little blog are also represented at the Olympics.  I can’t because of a lot of things.  A lot of work, for starters; and then there’s the super… Read More

Mary Says, Mitt Says

My 19-year-old niece Mary is in Israel.  So is Mitt Romney.  Mary arrived almost 4 weeks ago to assist with rebuilding homes of Palestinian people that have been destroyed in the areas of the country historically populated by Palestinians now being displaced.  Many of those lands are occupied by Jewish settlers. These are complicated issues from the standpoint of local, national and international politics.  They are less complicated but more urgent and… Read More

“I’m not done yet.”

My friend Murry is in a protracted conversation with esophageal cancer.  He knows all too well that his condition didn’t come from nowhere. The president spoke yesterday to matters in the Middle East – to the changes signified with the public uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.  He spoke to Israel and Palestine– to that protracted conversation.  We all know that none of that came from nowhere. Today I took a photo of… Read More

Community: A Change from the Disconnect

  It is very counter culture in a weird way to talk about all of us being good friends and helping each other. Rabbi Ariel Stone I’ve just watched a man in his 60’s, I’d guess, getting on his bicycle.  Earlier he came into this café, his body bent nearly to 90 degrees, maybe 110.  He used a cane to walk.  He ordered, took his breakfast roll and coffee and left.  Maybe… Read More

Dayenu: You gave us freedom, and that would have been enough.

“Maybe the most empowered change is to work to be less ignorant. We’re all ignorant and it’s a life long struggle.  If we commit ourselves to do our best to be wrong less frequently, well, that’s about the best we can do.” Peter Frishauf Last night I sat at a table with eight dear friends from two families.  Four of them are teenagers.  The rest of us are parents – you know,… Read More