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We just finished a long in depth course: Introduction to Judaism by the Union For Reform Judaism. I am a lifelong learner, in many ways a perpetual graduate student, because while I have read many articles by a variety of writers and organizations on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, I’m still learning more about the nature…
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I read hundreds of books every year, and therefore my social media analytics are tracking authors of all kinds. Unfortunately, there is one book in particular that would make for a great discussion: “Why is this memoir a good example of how NOT to write a book?” I would be afraid to ask, “What do…
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A couple of weeks ago we were traveling westward on Highway 70 from Hillsborough to Mebane, North Carolina, when Deep Purple hacked my husband’s Spotify account. Not one bit sorry, my husband kept his eyes on the road, hands firmly grasped on the steering wheel, and I watched a smile come over his face. Seated…
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A husband by marriage once leaned in close and spoke in an almost whisper but not quite soft enough for everyone not to hear. “You, buying these biscuits, really helped.” He tilted his head as if he were saying, “You understand where I am going with this. Don’t you?” I did. They were fresh, out…
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I’m not sure if the correct response is that we’ve been uninvited or excluded, but a family member is throwing a big deal at a destination wedding nearby, and my husband and I found out we are not on the guest list through the RSVP function on The Knot. I got a tip and went to see for myself.…
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For several seasons when I was a young person I worked as a waitress at a private Jewish country club in Hopkins, Minnesota: https://www.oakridgecountryclub.net/About_Us. Two shifts, sometimes three shifts a day. On my first day the dining manager told me a member wanted to speak to me and he led me to a separate room,…
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Kat Vellos, a queer writer, refers to our current social crisis as “post-pandemic platonic longing,” and I can’t recommend this book enough. After hunkering down for so many years and witnessing so many toxic relationships and emotional car wrecks daily via television and social media, this kind of reaction would make perfect sense. (I’m trying…
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Not counting our dearest and oldest friends, and our newbie dearest friends, my husband and I have a much wider circle of new relationships in our life these days. Important and necessary professional acquaintances; new and blossoming professional relationships with potential to become friendship relationships; Zoom groupers and leaders of Zoom groups (in all the…
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I used to teach a theme-based composition course on the farmers’ market and the homemade food Renaissance. Half of the required booklist is on the food manufacturing crisis; the other half poems and fiction on subjects like vegetables, flowers, nature, Adam and Eve. We watched documentaries on farming. Daily my students heard me rant on…
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My husband and I have been preparing children’s clothing, toys, and furniture donations for local charities. Being on the phone with people who do this kind of work reminded me of how important it is to listen. In his groundbreaking book “Working,” Studs Terkel taught the world a lesson on empathy: Only when we ask…
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Mary Louise Penaz 