Archive for April, 2009

On Work and Freedom: For Holocaust Remembrance Day and Durban II

Grandma Esther & Grandpa Al, about 2 years after her liberation from Auschwitz. My amazing grandmother, Esther Klein, is turning 91 next month. She was in her mid-twenties when she was liberated by the Swedish Red Cross from an aimless, endless transport, after having spent several nearly lethal winter weeks in Ravensbrueck. Before that, she'd "worked" for several months in Auschwitz, after having lived for a very short time, along with her elderly pa[...]



Nadab

photo: The Simpsons, from Jon Pattillo's Blog Leviticus 10:1-3 Brother, these rules will be the death of us: this “how to please me” this tutorial of the soul. How can passion wear a girdle? Answer questions? Wash? Where is the sacrifice in this ritual if our flesh isn’t in it?



Narcissus Online

photo by: la_febbra Today there are no signatures. I sign all my e-mails “S”, and it seems to be good enough. I have corresponded for months with people whose voices I have never heard. I do not know if they have a quick East Coast way of catching your sentences before you say them, or if they’re Midwesterners who listen until you’re well past done, and you’re waiting and waiting for them to say something. I do not know these things because all the lines[...]



Turnpike Insomnia

Being the only one awake life stands still; I am timeless with no company, no measuring stick of kitchen or toys. It’s now about whatever I can push into the empty closet of two a.m., in a house full of little (and one big) boys.



Here Comes the Sun

Today, in the Jewish world, there is plenty going on. Tonight we begin a week of Passover with the Seder, an annual remembrance of the Hebrews' freedom from Egypt, emancipated by no less than G-d, which we commemorate, roughly, by slaving in the kitchen (after having cleaned our house thoroughly during the previous week) and collapsing into our soup. This is not intentionally ironic, unless there is more sense of humor at play in our religion than I imagined. We ARE a funny people, they say. And then there is the sun.



The Kiss Hello: Can We Kiss It Goodbye?

jerry "I'm going on record right now, that was my last kiss hello. I am getting off the kiss program with her." "Why?" "Well, frankly, outside of a sexual relationship, I don't see the point to it. I'm not thrilled with all the handshaking either, but one step at a time." - Jerry and Elaine, in "The Kiss Hello" (Season 6: Episode 103) What is UP with the kiss hello? Am I waking up[...]



Suburban Worship

photo by: Dean Terry Our Lady of Compromise - at the Corner of Stability and Main - invites you to a Sisterhood Brunch in Honor of Everyone Being the Same.