Truth gives life I have disliked the name my mother gave me for as long as I can remember. I tried talking with her about changing it one time during my childhood, and her reaction was such that it has taken me into my sixties to reconsider the issue. Can you imagine sixty years of … Continue reading A New Name
The Real Enemy
Image by Ralph from Pixabay Human conflicts are rarely simple, and few are more complex than the one we are seeing unfold before our aghast eyes right now in the Middle East. But it seems to me that the real enemy is one that we have been dealing with since the days of Cain and … Continue reading The Real Enemy
On Gratitude in Hard Times
Image by Jackie Ramirez from Pixabay As you read this blog on Wednesday, this week it has been Thanksgiving in Canada, Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the US, and Isru Chag, the day marking the end of the High Holy Day season, for most Jews in the Diaspora (Israeli and Reform Jews marked it on Sunday). … Continue reading On Gratitude in Hard Times
Reminding Us of Precarity
Our sukkah This week Jewish people around the world celebrated Sukkot - the Feast of Booths, in which we build a little hut, known as a sukkah, outside our homes and do our best to live in it for a week, given the vagaries of weather. Here in Winnipeg, we are lucky any year we … Continue reading Reminding Us of Precarity
I Wish You Apples and Honey
Image by cstpdx from Pixabay As you read this message, we have transitioned into the Jewish year 5784 (no more or less an arbitrary number than the one associated with Pope Gregory). The holiday of Rosh HaShanah, the Head of the Year, kicks off a month-long cluster of holidays ordained in the Jewish Scripture, mostly … Continue reading I Wish You Apples and Honey
I Got Careless
Image by jessica45 from Pixabay There are a couple of places I go, where I repeatedly measure the CO2 levels in the air and the ventilation is excellent. This means that the air is being refreshed on a regular basis (whether because of a good ventilation system or because windows and doors are open, or … Continue reading I Got Careless
We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know
Lately, on my runs, I’ve been listening to the audio version of a book called Let This Radicalize You, by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba. It’s about organising movements and creating communities of care, especially within a system that is designed to destroy empathy and normalise the injury and death of those who are considered … Continue reading We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know
Let’s Talk About Fatigue
Image by WOKANDAPIX from Pixabay (Disclaimer: I am not an MD and do not play one on the Internet. This information is the result of research I have done, but it should absolutely not be taken as medical advice. Talk to your medical professional if you are concerned). Fatigue is about being tired beyond tired. … Continue reading Let’s Talk About Fatigue
Let’s Talk About Privilege
Image by Jerzy Górecki from Pixabay priv·i·lege noun a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group. Oxford Languages Privilege is a funny thing. If you are born to it, you may be completely unaware of it, unless someone outside your privileged group points it out to you. … Continue reading Let’s Talk About Privilege
A Little Zoharic Excursion
The Sefirotic Tree A little diversion … as the final essay for a class I took on Kabbalah, I had to write a pastiche/tikkun (repair) - someting in the style of the Zoharic literature, but fixing something I really didn’t like about it. This is in response to a passage in which Rabbi Shimon Bar … Continue reading A Little Zoharic Excursion