I don’t really remember the first, first car my family bought other than that apparently my parents listened to almost five-year-old me when I requested “fire engine red” and that we bought it from the same car dealer from whom we would buy two of our subsequent cars. I do remember the … [Read more...] about 1 Car, 2 Cars, Red Car, New Car
Gratitude
In an essay by Joan Didion that I go back to again and again, she writes: “there’s no getting around the fact that setting words on paper is the tactic of a secret bully, an invasion, an imposition of the writer’s sensibility on the reader’s most private space.” Takes a certain flair with … [Read more...] about Gratitude
Ain’t too proud to beg
I'm stretched out in bed, 9:30 p.m., a weeknight. A little early for me but it's the stretching out that I crave. To lie back, my neck propped against a trio of pillows. Recline. A word that hums, not so much directive as invitation: sink back. Let the shoulders relax, show the heart how … [Read more...] about Ain’t too proud to beg
Talk less, say more
I have a dream . . . in which I’m sitting at a kitchen table with my cousins—very close cousins, whom I love dearly—and we’re reminiscing, schmoozing, laughing about old times at another kitchen table, in a small Brooklyn apartment, as mythical as it was real. We tease each other about the kids we … [Read more...] about Talk less, say more
The road not taken
Last week I got lost on my way to synagogue. If there’s a metaphor here, getting lost also speaks literally to my uncertainty (not to mention the spike in anxiety) when driving someplace unfamiliar. Call me a Wandering Jew (better yet, Goldilocks), but the past few years have found me trying … [Read more...] about The road not taken
The holy or the broken
It’s taken me a long time but I think I’ve figured it out: my mom’s affinity for musicians who are good songwriters and poets but TERRIBLE singers has something to do with her being a writer. Let’s be real for a second … when you think of a “good” singer you think of someone like Etta James or … [Read more...] about The holy or the broken
