Category: Family

  • Has the day come?

    For the second time in about a week, I’m sharing something written by my friend and teacher, Rabbi Daniel Gordis, which pretty perfectly encapsulates and captures my feelings and reaction to the current political and social climate in the United States and beyond. It bears mentioning that I have had no illusions about our situation…

  • I Won a Grammy

    And I bet you didn’t even know I could sing or produce records or anything. Well, I can’t and I don’t, but anyway my Grammy was way better, if only slightly taller, than the award they give out. I found out about my Grammy, Phyllis Hersch, the way I’ve heard people find out about winning…

  • Like it was yesterday

    Like it was yesterday

    I remember laying awake in bed the night that our daughter came home from the hospital. She was in a bassinet at the foot of our bed, and Jenn said something like “What if she stops breathing and we can’t hear her?!” What was I worried about? Boyfriends. College tuition bills. The overwhelming responsibility of…

  • Count your blessings

    Tonight I get to go to sleep in my own bed, next to my wife, my only concern being how soon one of my children will wake up and need some attention (at worst, we’re talking a couple of times overnight, none of which are likely to kill me). Meanwhile, at MD Anderson Cancer Center…

  • Those Were The Days

    My beautiful, talented daughter had some time to create original art on Sunday. While I was doing something (monumentally important, I’m sure) she brought me this picture of “Ima’s house when she was little.” Lovely, right? We’ve been to that neighborhood, and this ain’t a bad representation, actually, not that she was trying for realism.…

  • Pre-school profundity

    I had a profound, important conversation with my three-and-a-half-year-old daughter Sunday evening. We were visiting the home of a congregant from our synagogue for shiva minyan, the service held in a house of mourning. The friend (T), himself well past middle age, had just lost his mother (she was in her 90s). Since we had…

  • I love it when a plan comes together

    I just successfully upgraded my WordPress installation, which powers this blog, to the latest version (3.0, called Thelonius – see the complete list of major WP releases, all named for jazz musicians). I did this with nary a bump, very few changes in settings, and everything seems to be right. My first activities with the…

  • Shabbat shalom x2

    Starting off the weekend right with a couple of outstanding drashot from two of my favorite rabbis: First, again, is Rabbi David Wolpe from Sinai Temple in LA, whose weekly Off The Pulpit I’ve mentioned before – it’s consistently inspirational and thought-provoking (I’m including the sign-up information at he bottom so you can subscribe too):…

  • We must be doing something right.

    Earlier this evening, after a terrific day that started with our amazing music class with the fabulous Ms. Laura and continued with a fantastic get-together with our awesome chavurah (including you, Bernsteins! See you soon!) at Fanuel St. Park, my beautiful 3-year-old daughter, of her own volition, helped clear our dishwasher (she did about half…

  • This evening.

    Note: We are all fine. 1. If, while a passenger in a motor vehicle, you ever find yourself in a position to have a Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck hop into your lap, say, “No, thank you!” 2. If you fail to follow the above advice, be prepared to become much better acquainted with your…