You Might Not Live Through This
by Melanie Gruenwald March 24th of 2016 (on Purim!) my vibrant, bright-eyed, 11 year old son, Koby, was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an incurable brain tumor. The future we assumed would be his suddenly evaporated. We had in front of us significant recovery, as a result of the damage caused by the tumor breaking, and we […]
V is for Vaccine
by Melanie Gruenwald V is for vaccine. For vulnerability. For victory. For a virus that does not want to be recognized. Every conversation I have lately, seems to have the common theme- are you vaccinated, when are you getting vaccinated, where are you on ‘the list,’ how are you feeling if you have been vaccinated, […]
Promises to Keep
by Dr. David Sanders Presidential inaugurations, like so many formal celebrations, tend to be formulaic. In 1961, John Kennedy broke with tradition by inviting the poet, Robert Frost, to share an original poem written for the occasion. It all went wrong. Frost, who was then eighty six years old, was unable, in the bright sunlight […]
Light, Color, and Tikkun Olam
by Janice Lines I have been thinking about what we discussed in class a couple of weeks ago, that spiritual pursuit and education is a privilege that not all get to enjoy. We felt humbled and somewhat ashamed that we are able to take classes, attend workshops, read and study, work on our faith and […]
Smelling Our Way
by Dr. David Sanders I thought it was a joke to learn that Google is beta testing the delivery of smells via your computer. What this will mean is that when you look up the word “rose” you can not only see an image or read about a rose, you can smell it. Covid-19 diminished […]
Breathe.
Melanie Gruenwald So many times, we experience life, thinking “I’ll feel better when… ”I’ll feel calmer when…” “I’ll feel less anxious when….” And “when” comes, and we’re all still feeling a bit muddled… what is going on? My first thought is the need to take more deep breaths and hydrate. We need to get out […]
Democracy is Coming (3 of 3)
by Dr. David Sanders In getting hold of a theme, Leonard Cohen, the poet-songwriter could prodigiously create rhymed verse after verse from the thesaurus under his arm that was far better than worse. For his 1992 song, Democracy is Coming to the U.S.A. Cohen dug deep to find rhymes beyond the usual suspects And with […]
Radical Change (2 of 3)
by Dr. David Sanders This is how this blog came together. We were sharing ideas in class about our awareness of systemic racism and the thought came up that what we need is not just incremental change, but radical change. That reminded me of the famous quote by Gandhi, “Be the change you want to […]
Stand by Democracy (1 of 3)
by Dr. David Sanders Have you ever driven by a billboard and taken notice of its message only to be told that the advertisement has been there for six months? Why do we take note of certain things and other things, in plain sight, escape our attention? The documentary Social Dilemma provides one answer to […]
The Invisible is More Important than the Visible
by Melanie Gruenwald Being a mourner in this time of COVID is an interesting experience. Life transitions, in general, are being experienced differently, in general. My dad passed away in Florida on August 25th. My brother and I were able to be with him in his final weeks, because of the flexibility of working remotely. […]