“I’m proud of you. You are taking two whole nights away, just for yourself,” I hear Larry say. I re-tuck the microphone of my headset into my facemask to muffle the wind for when I talk. “Larry, it’s more that they sent me. Is that better? Can you hear me better now?” It’s nice to […]
July 27, 2020 7:25pm “Because a good number of healthcare workers and moms I know recommend double masking,” Jane explains as she writes 971-247-2072 on my right arm—should I need the National Lawyers Guild to bail me out. Accordingly, I put a disposable paper mask one in my pocket for when I’m
Report from Rabbi Brian, slightly burnt out, yet still hopefull Read More »
Author’s Note “You can’t send this out,” Jane said at the kitchen table, reading as I drank my smoothie this morning. The hours and words I thought you were going to read, now that she’s saved me from a very likely error in judgment, gone. “I was afraid of that,” I said. I re-prioritize the semi-monthly, semi-personalized
The Program Setting Medford, Massachusetts, late fall 1991. My senior year. We forty residential advisors have been thirded from the lecture hall into the two nice and one not-so-nice of Tilden Hall’s classrooms for our monthly RA development program. My buddy Brian, Tufts’ Catholic society’s equivalent to me, and I pair up as impromptu, jovial group leaders in the large
Talmud. Enraged and Loved. Didn’t see it coming I’m three classes from the end of my tenure as the substitute rabbi for a local, weekly Talmud class. I’m at the kitchen table preparing for tomorrow and excited to see that this tractate (chapter) of Berakhot (blessings) includes reference to one of my spiritual
Talmud. Enraged and Loved. Read More »
Biking with Annie On this, our second day of Camp Spend-the-Morning-with-Dad-Thanks-to-Covid-19, Emmett peels off to bike around the park to complete his exercise commitment. Now it’s just Annie and me pedaling down residential NE Hancock on our way to pick up my Father’s Day gift of new silicone baking mats from the kitchen store
Anti-Racist in-training Read More »
The Scorpion and the Frog In the 1955 film, Confidential Report, Orson Wells, in the role as the mysterious tycoon Gregory Arkadin, introduces to the world the following story: “And now I’m going to tell you about a scorpion. This scorpion wanted to cross a river, so he asked the frog to carry him.
Mess. With intent to douse her brother with water, my 11-year-old Annie tugged on the backyard garden hose. “Stop! Stop! Stop!” I shouted. She didn’t see that the hose, tangled on a garden stake, would damage a portion of the garden if she pulled any further. She pulled and I received another mess—yet another I
Black Lives Matter Read More »
It was wrong We had decided to stain the diminutive cedar fence Minwax 203 — Early American. Two months into Covid-19. We conscript the kiddos into “family time backyard improvement project.” We parents have, at the very least, a different opinion as to the right way projects should be done, if only in the
The side-of-the-road experience We are engaged, not yet married. Her white Honda civic climbs the pass between the Angeles National and San Bernardino National Forests. Making our way to a weekend in Las Vegas. And then. Something feels wrong. “It’s stopping, the car, stopping.” “What?” “I can’t use the gas. I have no gas.” “OK, I’ll push,”