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How To Tell If Someone You Know Was Born And Raised In New York “The city is uncomfortable and inconvenient; but New Yorkers temperamentally do not crave comfort and convenience – if they did they would live elsewhere.”  E.B. White New Yorkers don’t wait for a street light to turn green to cross the street. They don’t go to the corner to cross. They don’t know what a cross walk is. They walk fast…

 Philosophical Questions Asked By Children All Over The World “Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” Voltaire In the past  two  years of my blog I have done Proust and  Kant questions on travel and in life  for the new year.  This time, I collected philosophy questions from children on my travels and from the writing program I volunteer in.  I didn’t answer them but they give…

How To Travel Alone

How To Travel Alone “All you need is 20 seconds of insane courage and I promise you something great will come of it.” Cameron Crowe and Alice Mckenna Just to be clear. If you told me ten years ago I would be writing any blog, I would not have believed you.   First of all, I’m not a writer. Second , I didn’t go to a PTA meeting alone or anywhere else. My life and my future were on a safe, secure…

Things That I Am Not Going To Do As A Grandparent

Things I’m Not Going To Do As A Grandparent “If I had known grandkids were so much fun, I would have had them first.” unknown They say you are never happier than your unhappiest child. My daughter just had a baby and I feel this is about to happen again. In order to have a good relationship with someone who is about to become the most important thing in my life, I am making a list of things not…

Freedom From And Freedom To – Not Taking The Vaccine In America

Freedom From And Freedom To – Not Taking The Covid Vaccine In America “You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.” Babe Ruth The vaccines are proven safe and accessibility is easier than ever but still I am in the position of trying to convince a loved one to take the vaccine. I understood the hesitancy in…

Yom Kippur “One lives in the hope of becoming a memory.” Antonio Porchia Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is considered the single holiest day in the Jewish year. It is a somber and solemn day. It is the day we atone for our sins and set the path for the new year. Who by fire? asks the Leonard Cohen song. The day is most famously marked by complete abstinence from food and water for 26 hours.…

California Recalling “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.”  Franklin D. Roosevelt I opened my ballot to vote last night and there they were – 46 of the strangest candidates to replace Governor Newsome – from Angelyne (an eighties sex symbol who always drove around town in a bright…

Things I Am Good At

Things I Am Good At “Be good at something. It makes you valuable. Have something to bring to the table, because that will make you more welcome. “ Randy Pausch You know what they say – low self-esteem is a self-fulling prophecy. The worse you feel about who you are and what you do, the less motivation you’ll have to do what it takes to build your self-esteem. How do you stop this vicious…

In The End We Felt Betrayed – Afghanistan And Viet Nam

In The End We Felt Betrayed – Afghanistan And Viet Nam “There’s never been a noble war except in the history books and propaganda movies. It’s a bloody, dirty, cruel, costly mistake in almost every case, as it was in this war that would end so badly.” Harold G. Moore “In the end we felt betrayed” said a Viet Nam veteran who sees parallels between what the US did in Viet Nam and Afghanistan.…

Israelis And Palestinians “If your mother and father are fighting, who do you want to win? No one. You just want the fighting to stop.” Unknown As with any war, everyone is fighting and no one is listening. The state of Israel  was created by a vote in the United Nations as a safe haven for the Jewish people who suffered from a history of antisemitism followed by the most horrific trauma of the…

To Kill A Mockingbird – Banned Again

To Kill A Mockingbird – Banned Again  “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” Atticus Finch, Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird To Kill A Mockingbird  has a long history with censorship.  It is one of the most…

More Of The Same

More Of The Same “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better…

Am I Prejudiced In America?

Am I Prejudiced In America? “People who insist on dividing the world into ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ never contemplate that they may be someone else’s ‘Them’.” Ray Davis I decided to repost this blog. Our culture is splintering. Racism is out in the open and as it is challenged on one hand, it is championed even more on the other. We are all in this together and until we understand this ourselves, we…

Am I Prejudiced In America?

Am I Prejudiced In America? “People who insist on dividing the world into ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ never contemplate that they may be someone else’s ‘Them’.” Ray Davis Donald Sterling said he was not a racist after making racial slurs. This made me wonder how you decide if you are a racist. I took some online tests. According to the internet, I am not. But I already knew that. The more serious question…

  Whenever a person I care about dies, I think about that book The Tenth Good Thing About Barney. it is a story of a child who has to.find ten good things to say at the funeral of his cat. When someone I love dies, I immediately start thinking of their ten good things. It is a ritual I do and it helps me get through those first few hours. We lost a young family friend recently. Chelsea was…

 New Normal “Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.” Camille Pissarro No one would describe me as a corona virus optimist, though I do think about traveling next summer. I don’t see face masks, face time or zoom going away any time soon. I hear terms like the great reset for what to do with your life now.  There is no part of our lives that will…

To The Vaccine “There is no glory in illness. There is no meaning to it.” John Greene It is safe to say that 2020 was a year like no other. In the early days of the virus, information was changing daily. At first, I too was on the fence when I learned the vaccine was going to be fast tracked. I try to take a more natural approach to health care. But as my father used to say about religion, we are…