It’s a classic scene: Luke Skywalker is learning to use his lightsaber under the wise tutelage of Obi Wan Kenobi. “A Jedi can feel the Force flowing through him,” Obi Wan says when Luke’s lightsaber once again misses the targeted training remote. “This time, let go your conscious self and act on instinct.” Because, of…
Happy (Non)Birthday!
My grandmother had two birthdays. For most of her life she celebrated on August 26th, the birthday she’d known since childhood. Then, sometime during the late 1960s, her husband found a box on the upper shelf of a closet in their Bronx apartment. Among the important papers it contained was Rachel’s birth certificate, something that…
Blurring the Boundaries
I was one of those kids who knew my dolls were alive. I figured that whenever I left the room, they relaxed and chatted casually amongst themselves. (I ignored the idea that this could happen while I was asleep. The thought of them dancing around while I was present crossed the line into terror, and…
The Allegorical Window
Welcome to my new website! Make yourself at home–I’d offer you a drink or snacks but, you know…virtual experience. At least after a year-plus of socializing via Zoom, we’re all accustomed to lax hospitality. Feel free to poke around. I’ll leave you to it, but before I go, I’d like to point out the gorgeous…
Japan House Suites
During my last road trip, I stayed in a Coeur d’Alene, Idaho motel called Japan House Suites. I didn’t know much about it, but it offered the best price in a relatively expensive town and had solid reviews. For one night on the road, that was enough. I booked online before leaving home. Crossing Montana…
Wanderlust
I’m just back from a visit with my daughter and her partner. They recently moved to a new home, and I was eager to not only see them but to experience their new surroundings as well. I wasn’t disappointed. The house is charming. Inside, interesting rooms supply opportunities to create moods and memories. Outside, there’s…
Seventeen Years
I live in one of the fifteen states where Brood X (that’s Roman numeral X), the largest brood of periodical cicadas, has graced us with its presence this summer. Following a weirdly accurate inner clock, these insects emerge from the soil every seventeen years, live it up for maybe four to six weeks, and then…
No Business Like Show Business
My father was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1928. His was not the “typical” childhood: he spent the 1930s and ’40s performing on radio and in the Yiddish theater, where divas starred in ingenue roles even after their daughters were old enough to play their mothers, and the actual words of the script were…
The Public Nature of Private Journals
(A version of this post was originally published on Nov. 13, 2013 on the Late Last Night Books blog.) I write journals. Year after year, the stacks of filled notebooks on my closet shelf grow taller, leaning into each other until I’m forced to start another pile. This stash doesn’t even include my high school…
