We all know how to play the game. You go to a party and the woman next to you mentions that she just moved from Detroit and for the next few minutes, the conversation goes something like this. “Really? I have a cousin in Detroit, or maybe it’s West Bloomfield,” you say with an immediate…
“Knock knock!” “Who’s there?” “Me.” “Me who?” A silly childhood joke, right? Perhaps, but it could also be viewed as one of the most compelling questions of all time. Because, if asked differently, the question “Me who?” is actually: “Who am I?” Since the beginning of time, we have been attempting to understand and articulate…
The number 40 in the Jewish tradition holds a unique spot in our history and collective psyche. The flood lasted for 40 days. Moses went up to the mountain to receive the Torah for 40 days and 40 nights. The Hebrew people wandered in the desert for 40 years. We are forbidden to study Kabbalah…
My dad is a stand-up kind of guy. Well, actually, at 98, he is more of a sit-down, “I’m-tired” kind of guy, but his attitude reflects that of someone much younger. He has weathered business ups and downs, macular degeneration, colon cancer, a daughter who hitchhiked cross country after college hoping to “find herself” and…
Passover is the time of year when Jews retell the core narrative of the Jewish people, which goes like this: We were slaves in Egypt for over 400 years, then God brought us out of Egypt “with a strong hand and an outstretched arm” to become a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” The…
When my daughter Lauren was in kindergarten, her class took a trip to our local zoo to learn about animals. The children were treated to two beautiful, slightly unusual sights that morning: A newborn lion cub lay curled up sleeping next to its mother and an elephant named Sammie was breastfeeding her baby. When I…
In 1984, after an abusive marriage and a stalled career, singer Tina Turner wrote her come-back smash hit “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” The song is actually an anti-love rant, praising carnal love without any emotional attachment. In a gut-wrenching voice, Tina belts out that love is nothing more than a “secondhand emotion”…
My cell phone rings and Mom’s name flashes on the screen. “I’m ashamed of myself,” she whispers into the phone. “Oh, hi Mom. About what?” I ask. My mother typically begins our phone conversations as if we have been talking for a while. “I played bridge today and was stuck with a real dud for…
It shouldn’t take a diagnosis of cancer or other life-threatening illness to make us “wake up” to wanting to live our lives more fully. Yet, for many of us, the sense of urgency that comes with having a disease or serious medical condition is often the impetus for just that sort of wake-up call. When…
My husband, Ray, was diagnosed with diabetes in 1962, when he was 12 years old. Back in those days, it was a big ordeal to manage juvenile diabetes. There were no glucometers, insulin pumps or disposable syringes to ease the way or help parents keep their children’s blood sugar under control. And when, in 1985,…
