Personal Growth
How To Protect Your Brain From Being Eaten by Ideology, Idiocy, and Bad-Faith Arguments
A few years ago when I quit the news, I also quit reading articles. Specifically, ones forwarded to me via email by people who do not generally read. Like a food diet, my information diet needed to be protected. Books were allowed in. Documentaries, in. Debate, in. Forwarded articles were a no. Social media, no. (…)
Enjoying Yourself While The World Burns
I managed to coerce myself to have what I’m told is called “fun” a few weekends ago and it got me thinking about the difficulty inherent in “letting go” and enjoying yourself while the world burns. For me, I can’t. I get instantly assaulted with guilt, then shame, and then my brain tells me that if I just (…)
On The Privilege of Hiding
There are a few places outside of Texas or California where I will agree to eat tacos. Born and raised in Texas, I am a taco snob; so when a new taco joint opened in Jersey City about 10 or so years ago, I agreed to go reluctantly. There were maybe seven of us at dinner (…)
Exist
One of the things you grow up thinking about when you are the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors is, “What would I have done?” Who would I be? There are things that get discussed fairly openly that you don’t realize are odd until you are exposed to “non-Holocaust” families. Like: How many languages can you speak? (…)
Too Tired
It’s rare that I find myself at a loss of words. But for the past week, I have been frozen. Silent on social media. Silent here with you. Loud in my own personal circles, but frozen inside. After I dropped my daughter off at school this week, I laid on the floor and just felt (…)
Apology Demands Admission (My Annual Yom Kippur Sermon)
Yom Kippur is coming up which means it’s time for my annual sermon on forgiveness. This year I’m going to tell you a less-known fact about the tradition and assert something that appears on the surface sacrilegious but hear me out. You do not have to forgive. The commandment is to ask for forgiveness. Not (…)
What Arguments Are Worth Your Time
In response to the story I shared last week, many of you disparaged yourselves for not having the courage to say what I said. I realized I didn’t add an important distinction: That wasn’t courage. I rarely speak up when adults say inane and cruel things anymore. Not because I don’t want to, but because (…)
The Subtle Transmission of Dangerous Ideas
We were all sitting around the living room trying to ignore the chaos of children around us and have a decent conversation when someone made the trying-to-be-funny comment about how their son should marry that person’s daughter so they could be in-laws. “Or son,” I said. “What?” the father said back to me. “He could (…)