I hate it when I don’t follow my own advice, and even more, I hate admitting it. Way back when we got the Trump government in 2016, it seemed as if everyone went out of their minds daily, experiencing some variety of trauma activation from some latest news item. The restimulations were neverending. I urgently […]
Tengo: Imaginary Friends, Loss, Time Read More »
Many people don’t know that Chanukah is a holiday about miracles. Ironically, at least in the US, the winter holiday season tends to be an extra hard or outright miserable time for so many people, especially those who have complicated or nonexistent relationships with family, leaving them feeling more lonely and ashamed than usual. With
Miracles: Slam Dunk, Fire, Serendipity Read More »
When I started therapy in 1978, long before many of my readers were born, our mom muttered bitterly, not quite under her breath, “…the ‘blame your mother’ generation!” I have no idea why I even told her. From then forward, my therapist ever retained her reign as “public enemy number one.” Blame is not my
Motherlode of Neglect: Refrigerators, Helicopters, Tigers Read More »
Weaving I really only remember seeing our dad cry once. Our family all piled into the old Chevy wagon, driving in a torrential New York City downpour. I don’t remember what he was upset about; it was rather a flashbulb image of his face, framed in the rearview mirror, with a backdrop of the windshield
Switchbacks: Weaving, Weather, Nonlinearity Read More »
Some time ago, I wrote a blog about the man who cleaned my car windows, knowing I had no cash to give him. After it happened, I tucked a neatly folded twenty in a pocket of my purse and zipped it in, hoping I might see him again someday. For weeks, even months, I craned
Mirror Mirror: Sequel, Mirroring, Transformation Read More »
When we were kids, every year about this time, a little old man would show up early in the morning at our door, all dressed up in a well-worn dark suit and tie, with a yarmulke on his head and a tattered old prayer book under his arm. He would look up sheepishly from under
The Big One: Atonement, Apology, Forgiveness Read More »
It is hard to believe it has been a year since the horrifying Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Admittedly, I was barely aware of the US’ 20-year “involvement” there until the messy and controversial evacuation. My limited knowledge of the place was only from the novels of Khaled Hosseini, some of which were so sad as
About Face: War, Unsung Heroes, A Sense of Self Read More »
The first Monday in September is Labor Day here in the US. It was always the last blush of summer before school started when I was growing up. Now the kids go back to school in August, which is a crime against nature as far as I am concerned. Labor Day originated as a national
Labor of Love: Work, Heinzelmännchen, Love Read More »
Berkeley author Michael Chabon’s touching memoir, Manhood for Amateurs, begins with his declaration that his story started with the birth of his brother when he was five years old, saying: “Before that, I had no one to tell it to.” With no “other,” existence itself is questionable, which is why neglect is so very lethal.
A Flying Snack: Suffering, A Flock, Revival Read More »
From an early age, I harbored both fascination and perhaps preoccupation with the body. Certainly my own, but really everyone’s. I was curious about sex, obsessed about food and weight, athletics, healing, all of it. I did not think I was smart enough to be a doctor, but I thought about it. In graduate school,
Anybody: Preoccupation, Affiliation, Acceptance Read More »